“The application was just sent in this morning. Applications like this normally don’t take long. Socso should process this in the next few days,” he told reporters after announcing Grab’s sponsorship of insurance for over 180,000 e-hailing and p-hailing drivers.
Last week, a deaf and mute e-hailing driver was assaulted by the police escort to a VIP while waiting to pick up passengers at a hotel in Kuala Lumpur.
On Wednesday, Bukit Aman criminal investigation department director Shuhaily Zain said police were investigating the escort for causing voluntary hurt.
Meanwhile, the women, family and community development ministry is looking for a way to help the driver.
Its minister, Nancy Shukri, said the driver was not seeking financial assistance, the Borneo Post reported.
“But we want to know what exactly is the problem,” she was quoted as saying.
She said all available information on the incident had been derived from news reports.
Sim said Socso had seen an increase of almost 50% in employers registering their workers with the agency since his announcement of an extended amnesty period to June 30.
“I think this is a good sign. I hope more employers will step forward to register their workers and pay their contributions before June 30,” he said.
He reiterated that legal action may be taken against errant employers once the deadline has passed, including fines of up to RM10,000, two years’ imprisonment, or both.
Socso’s initial amnesty was for two weeks from May 15 to 31. On May 15, the agency also announced the launch of Ops Kesan this month to identify employers who have yet to register their employees.
Failure to comply will result in fines of up to RM5,000 and a 6% per annum interest on late payment charges for each day the contribution is overdue.
On a different matter, Sim said the first interim report on the study to establish the gig economy commission will be tabled at the Cabinet meeting tomorrow.
He said the report was prepared in collaboration with the ministry and Universiti Malaya.
“This is a framework information paper that we have created for now, and after this we will get additional inputs from the Cabinet, then we will make further study and the final paper will be completed in August,” he said.