GEORGE TOWN, March 19 ― Most of the factories in Penang are in the essential categories listed by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) so many have continued operations at minimal level, said InvestPenang’s Datuk Seri Lee Kah Choon.
He said MITI has issued a list of industries in the essential categories that can continue to operate at minimal level during these two weeks of Movement Control Order (MCO).
“For Penang, most of our industries are in the essential categories such as food,medical devices, electrical and electronics,” he said.
He said this means the factories can continue to operate at the minimal level.
“This is the best outcome in this difficult situation,” he said.
He said by operating at minimal level, it could sustain some of the factories.
“Some factories may chose to shut down totally for various reasons; the workers refuse to work; production may be futile as ancillary services such as logistics may not be working or at below efficient level,” he added.
There were confusion among factory workers and the public over which factories are allowed to remain at operations yesterday and today.
Last night, about 200 factory workers had gathered outside a solar panel manufacturer as they were not aware that the factory was allowed to operate at 50 per cent capacity.
The police was called in to check and acting Central Seberang Perai Police Chief Supt Mohd Mustafa Bidin said they went to check the situation at the factory at around 10pm last night.
“We met with the factory management and the workers were dissatisfied that they were ordered to work and some suspected their co-workers had contracted Covid-19,” he said.
Following investigations, he said the factory’s panel clinic has confirmed that none of the factory workers had tested positive for novel coronavirus.
He said the factory operations were also in accordance with regulations stipulated by MITI and the National Security Council.
“We have advised the 200 workers to go back to work and that there was no Covid-19 being spread in the factory,” he said.
He said the workers complied and no untoward incidences happened.
Earlier today, pictures of factory workers queuing to enter an electrical and electronic factory, Plexus Manufacturing, were also spread on social media.
Southwest district police chief Supt A. Anbalagan met with the factory management at around 4pm to discuss the measures that can be taken to enforce social distancing.
“The factory was scanning temperatures of the workers as per instructions by MITI before allowing them to enter but in the process, they admitted this led to workers waiting outside as they were individually scanned,” he said.
He said a new measure was only to allow one bus load of workers to enter first and once the workers are cleared, the second bus load will be allowed to enter.
“This will allow for social distancing when they check each individual’s temperature,” he said.
Plexus issued a statement today to state that its production falls under the essential services clause for E&E including semiconductors.
“With this, we are resuming our operation at 50 per cent workforce at 7am today, per the direction from the Prime Minister’s office,” it said.
The factory stressed that it is a crucial part of the supply chain globally producing essential medical devices.
“As a responsible employer, we have been working diligently to put in place various precautionary measures to safeguard the safety and health of our employees even before the Order is in place,” it said.
The precautionary measures taken included educating all employees to observe their own health and seek medical advices should they notice any Covid-19 symptoms, imposing travels and cross-sites visits restriction, conducting Covid-19 awareness and preventive communication sessions, imposing dormitory and bussing segregation and facilities zoning to eliminate cross-area movements.
The factory cafeteria was also rearranged to offer pre-packed meals, table segregation or partition and staggered meal hours.
“We have also done facilities sanitization at all five Penang sites on March 15,” it said.
It said members of the Plexus Leadership Team, led by its APAC President Datuk YJ Lim, meet daily in an effort to monitor and adjust our practices accordingly, as well as to stay abreast of the recommendations of leading public health organizations such as the Ministry of Health (MoH), Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO).
“The same leadership team was involved in managing the Covid-19 crisis in five facilities in China within four cities with zero case to date,” it said.
