This should have been introduced earlier, say laid-off workers

PETALING JAYA: Many people have thrown their support behind the Employment Insurance System (EIS), seeing it as a financial lifeline for those who have lost their jobs.

Nor Izwan Zainal, who was retrenched at the end of May, found the RM600 interim assistance a great help.

This was especially so as the 40-year-old private driver had to support his wife and five children.

“It was good financial support during the time I was looking for work. Moreover, I’m quite pleased that the Social Security Organisation (Socso) helped me find a new job,” said Nor Izwan.

A man who wanted to be known only as Gan applied for the interim RM600 assistance and has already received the payout.

“It was very helpful and helped ease my financial burden as I looked for another job.

“I did have to prove that I was actively looking for work by showing I went for interviews,” said Gan, who is in his 50s and who had previously worked as an administrative assistant.

Another man who only wanted to be known as Michael had been retrenched at the end of 2015.

He said: “EIS would have definitely made a difference as any sort of funding would have helped, especially if you have a family.

“In fact, it would even give people motivation to look for jobs, seeing as there is even an Early Re-employment Allowance and Training Allowance.

“At the time I was retrenched, I had been with the company for 21 years. I never worked anywhere else and, in a way, I needed to assimilate myself back into the real world,” said Michael.

While the 44-year-old retail ­manager said his company had provided training and programmes to help its retrenched workers secure new jobs, a scheme like EIS would have been an added benefit as it even provided re-employment assistance.

Ariff (not his real name), an engineer by profession, said the EIS benefits would have been a “huge help” as the allowance would be given out over a six-month period.

“I was retrenched in 2017, and was unemployed for almost eight to nine months. If such a scheme had been introduced earlier, it would have helped a lot.

“You’ll never know for how long you would be out of a job,” said the 39-year-old.

Despite the encouraging views on EIS, there are still areas that need to be looked into, such as the terms of eligibility.

Agnes (not her real name) was recently told that her role had been made redundant, but was given a three-month contract to help out during the transition period.

She was told that she would be under contract up until early 2019.

“I thought that I would be entitled to EIS but when I enquired, I found out that I was not.

“I was told that while I had been made redundant, I could not claim benefits under EIS because the terms of my unemployment would be due to the ending of my contract under the same company,” she said.

Agnes, who is in her 40s and who previously worked in a multi­national corporation, said the EIS eligibility criteria should be reviewed on a case-by-case basis.

“Like in my case – the reason I had agreed to stay on under contract was to help the company, but the contract came about due to my role being made redundant,” she said of her Catch-22 situation.