Two educators excluded from the WFH policy were neutral about it, but one – a high school teacher in Terengganu – pointed out that the education ministry should put more effort into online learning.
The high school teacher said he commutes roughly 140km every day from his home to his school in rural Terengganu.
“Most of the teachers here travel roughly 50km to 60km one way,” the 28-year-old said.
The WFH policy should be more flexible and the private sector should be involved if the government is serious about saving fuel, he added.
“Surely the ministries have figured out a way to make sure that learning can happen, even though it is conducted online,” he said. “We should be doing everything that we absolutely can to preserve our oil.”
The other educator, a senior lecturer in her 40s at a public university in southern Malaysia, agreed.
The education/higher education, health and home ministries are four ministries “commanding the highest percentage of civil service staff, yet we are excluded from the WFH arrangements”, she noted.
“It feels like a performative announcement without much impact.”
That said, being excluded from the WFH policy makes little difference to the senior lecturer. This is because her employer already offers flexible work arrangements that allow “working in any location so long as we check in on the uni app”.
WHAT WILL WFH POLICY ACHIEVE?
Analysts said Malaysia’s WFH policy in its current form will have only a minimal impact on energy savings.
Its impact would be greater if extended to the private sector, they said, although some observers doubt the feasibility given the wide variety of industries involved and the potential for higher costs and economic losses.
Based on back-of-the-envelope calculations, economist Geoffrey Williams, director of Williams Business Consultancy, estimated that out of Malaysia’s 1.3 million civil servants, only around 260,000 would be eligible to WFH.
A three-day WFH arrangement would cut their office commute to eight days per month, saving around 9.4 million litres of RON95 petrol per month and RM17.7 million (US$4.44 million) in subsidies, he projected.
These savings represent less than 1 per cent of total petrol consumption and subsidies, said Williams, describing the impact as “very small”.
“To be impactful, it must be extended to state-level civil servants, GLICs, GLCs and statutory bodies. But most importantly, it must be extended to the private sector,” he added.
“Currently the policy poses no risks (from an economic perspective) because it’s too limited. It should be extended to all employees to make a big difference.”