BUTTERWORTH | A company here is rewarding its employees for taking the trouble to get vaccinated against Covid-19 as soon as possible, and it worked.
As a token of encouragement, some 120 employees of MY CO2 Group of Companies got RM150 after being vaccinated.
The company’s chief executive officer Louis Ooi said since introducing the incentives on Monday, registration for vaccination among employees rose from 58% to 85% yesterday.
“About 30% of our employees are at high risk, especially those in customer service, environmental engineering and industrial hygiene departments.
“They cannot avoid on-site face-to-face meetings, ” said Ooi, adding that his company provides lab-testing and accreditation to many factories and is therefore an essential service provider.
Ooi, who is also chairman of Malaysian Association Of Accredited Laboratories and Small and Medium Enterprises Association southern region chapter, said the financial incentive is more cost-effective than paying for Covid-19 tests.
“The RM150 incentive is cheaper if one were to compare this cost with sending the staff members for regular PCR tests and facing the risk of closure due to close contact with confirmed cases.
“Our chief finance officer has already been vaccinated while the chief development officer and I have been given our appointment dates to receive the AstraZeneca vaccine.
“We encourage employees to be vaccinated the earliest possible as side effects from the vaccination are proven to be minimal.
“People need to understand that mass immunisation has been proven to reduce overall death tolls such as in United Kingdom and United States.
“Hopefully, other small medium enterprises will also give incentives to their staff to quickly get vaccinated too, ” said Ooi.
