KUCHING: Sarawak Oil Palm Plantation Owners Association (Soppoa) has voiced concern over the high fees charged for some professional and logistic services due to limited clinics and some panel doctors unwilling to travel to conduct Covid-19 RTK antigen tests at work premises in remote or rural areas.
The Ministry for Human Resource announced on February 2 that the mandatory Covid-19 RTK antigen testing for all foreign workers be completed by Feb 28 in Sarawak.
Soppoa representatives led by chief executive officer Andrew Cheng had a meeting on Friday (Feb 5) at the Labour Department headquarters to seek clarification on the matter.
The meeting was chaired by Sarawak Labour Department deputy director Sulaiman Ismail and participated by Social Security Organization (Socso) representative Shamsul Rahmat and Department of Occupational Safety and Health representative Arahman Ismail, said Soppoa in a statement yesterday.
Sulaiman reaffirmed the government’s directive and said the department will only reconsider extending the deadline of mandatory RTK testing for foreign workers if it is absolutely necessary.
The extension was requested by Soppoa due to the large number of foreigners involved and with limited clinics and medical centres especially in Miri, Sibu and Bintulu districts where limited panel clinics are assigned to handle the biggest contingents of plantation foreign workers employed in the state.
Meanwhile, Socso confirmed that the RTK antigen test kits for 105,000 foreign workers in Sarawak were airlifted by TUDM to Sarawak on Feb 4 and have just been distributed to the various Socso district offices for distribution to panel clinics.
There are about 120,000 registered foreign workers in the country of which 70,000 are in the plantation sector. Employers are advised to negotiate with relevant medical centres on cost involved for the professional services but RTK kits are provided free by Socso for foreign workers who are registered under Socso.
At the same time, Shamsul said that employers who hire foreign workers, who are not registered with Perkeso, can still do so without any penalty imposed during this grace period.
Meanwhile, Sulaiman also reminded employers to provide proper and safe accommodation for foreign workers working in Sarawak.
SOPPOA supports the call by Sarawak Disaster Management Committee and Labour Department Sarawak for full co-operation from all sectors to combat Covid-19.
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