MCO SOP

Challenges Under Pandemic

How The Furniture Industry Survives

Steve Ong Yeoh Huan was elected as the position of President on February 15, 2020. Joining him were Goh Song Huang as Secretary-General and Eng Chong Yeu as Vice President, along with other council members. Shortly after, the outbreak of the Covid-19 coronavirus led Malaysia to implement the Movement Control Order (MCO) in March. The MCO resulted in a restriction on workers’ mobility, and factories were unable to operate during this period. With a shortage of labour, production plummeted significantly. Moreover, the MCO had an impact on other sectors, leading to a surge in prices. All of these factors posed significant challenges for the new council members.

The newly appointed council members of MFA drafted letters to the relevant departments, requesting the resumption of operations for furniture factories. The letters highlighted the economic value generated by the furniture industry in Muar and the benefits of reopening, as well as offering suggestions for Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) during the pandemic. Two weeks later, the furniture industry in Muar was finally allowed to resume operations with the approved letters.

Operating the furniture industry in Muar during the pandemic posed immense challenges. If any confirmed cases of

COVID-19 were identified within a factory, the entire facility would be locked down, and all workers had to undergo testing and wear quarantine wristbands for isolation quarantine.

Furthermore, enforcement agencies frequently conducted random spot check health inspections at factories, imposing fines on factory owners for minor infractions, making life even more difficult for industry members.

Prior to the MCO, the government had already halted the recruitment of foreign workers, and the restrictions imposed by the MCO further limited people’s mobility. As a result, there was a severe shortage of foreign labour. Finding replacements for the workforce within a short period proved to be extremely challenging for the furniture industry.

Muar accounts for 60% of Malaysia’s furniture export rate, making it a significant contributor to the country’s export industry. However, the number of foreign workers in the furniture industry in Muar was insufficient to support the workload required to sustain this export rate. The labour quota system, where each local employee is eligible to be accompanied by three foreign workers, limited the number of foreign workers that factories could apply for, which proved to be inadequate.