Johor police chief warns errant employers to obey SOPs or risk seeing their operations shut down

JOHOR BARU, May 25 — Employers and premises owners who are allowed to operate throughout the third phase of the movement control order (MCO) in Johor are reminded by the police to provide a work environment that complies with the new standard operating procedures (SOP), said Datuk Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay.

The Johor police chief said the employers and premises owners were also reminded to always ensure that their employees complied with the SOP at all times while at work.

“This is because there was still non-compliance detected based on the monitoring done by police at several work premises earlier.

“While participating in Operation Covid-19 which was conducted at two premises just now, I found that there were still employees who did not comply with the SOP,” he said.

Ayob Khan pointed out that the main non-compliance detected was that employees did not register through the MySejahtera application when entering their workplace.

“Besides that, there are also employers who are stubborn and refuse to comply with the set SOP, such as the number of employees allowed to work at one time and the work hours,” he said during a media conference held at the Johor police contingent headquarters here today.

Today is the first day that the country will come under the new SOP under the tightened MCO, which sees, among others, 80 per cent of civil servants and 40 per cent of private sector staff working from home. Most premises such as eateries and shops will open only from 8am to 8pm.

In this regard, Ayob Khan said the police have issued a stern warning to employers and premises owners to comply with the rules set or action to stop operations will be taken against them.

Earlier today, the SOP compliance operation saw seven compounds issued to workers when inspections were made on two factory premises located in the Pasir Gudang area near here.

Meanwhile, Ayob Khan also said that the compliance rate of MCO’s SOP among Johoreans is at 98 per cent, and there is still room for improvement.

“Starting today, stern action will be taken against any individuals found to be violating the SOP set by the government in breaking the Covid-19 infection chain,” he said.

From January 13 this year until May 24, a total of 4,085 compounds were issued by the Johor police with the Johor Baru Selatan, Kulai and Segamat administrative areas being the highest compound issuance police districts.