Over 200,000 civil servants in Malaysia begin work from home, public services remain unaffected

In a bid to conserve energy, a work from home (WFH) policy has been implemented by the Malaysian government, effective Wednesday (April 15), Bernama reported.

Over 200,000 civil servants living more than 8km away from their offices are affected by this arrangement, and it applies to those working in Putrajaya, Kuala Lumpur, Selangor and all state capitals.

WFH will be for three days each week from Wednesday, Free Malaysia Today reported on Tuesday.

Despite the arrangements seeing fewer workers in offices — particularly in the federal administrative capital Putrajaya — reports said that counter services are operating smoothly, including the Immigration Department and Royal Malaysia Police.

But the route leading to Kuala Lumpur's city centre remained crowded as usual during peak hours of 7am to 10am, Berita Harian reported.

To prevent energy wastage, government buildings have switched to a low-power state with dimmer lights and less lifts in operation.

Azlina Suliman, an Accountant General's Department employee, was quoted as saying by local media that civil servants in her department are tasked with maintaining office-level productivity during the WFH period.

"Fieldwork and task assignments carry on unchanged," she said.

Malaysia's chief secretary Shamsul Azri Abu Bakar said on Tuesday that WFH does not mean that civil servants can compromise on administrative performance, Free Malaysia Today reported.

"We must not treat the implementation of WFH as an excuse to delay or postpone any of the programmes we have already scheduled.

"What we need to do is review these programmes to ensure they align with current cost-saving policies — not cancel or defer them if they are truly necessary," he said.

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