THE statement by Defence Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri that all private sector employers must pay their workers’ salary during the two weeks of the movement control order (MCO) has no force of law, says the Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF).
“There is the question of whether employers are legally obliged to pay salaries throughout the fourteen-day MCO. This is a situation of force majeure, a frustration of contract, an event that is beyond the reasonable control of either employer or employee. In this kind of situation, either party has the right to nullify the contract, ” MEF executive director Datuk Shamsuddin Bardan tells Sunday Star.