Key amendments to the Employment Act 1955 effective from 1 September 2022

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With effect from 1 Sept 2022, the amendments to the Employment Act 1955 ("EA 1955") will come into force and the key amendments to the EA 1955 are:

		EA 1955	Employment Amendment Act 2022
1	​Changes in the first schedule (Scope of employees being affected)	Currently, the EA 1955 only applies to employees who: ​ earn less than RM 2,000 per month; or regardless of income, are employed as manual labourers or supervisors of manual labourers; or fall within certain categories such as those working on sea vessels, domestic servants etc.	​Apply to all employees irrespective of wages with exception on the following specific sections being applicable to employees earning less than RM 4,000 per month only Overtime (i) work on rest days (ii) work outside of normal working hours (iii) work on public holidays (iv) work on holidays on half working days Shift work allowance Termination, lay-off and retirement benefits
2	Maximum weekly working hours	48 hours	45 hours
3	Sick leave & hospitalisation leave	Utilisation of regular sick leave benefits when using the 60 days of hospitalisation	60 days of paid hospitalisation leave + 14-22 days of paid sick leave
4	Maternity leave	60 days	98 days
5	Pregnant employees		Prohibited from terminating pregnant employees or employees who are suffering from illness arising from the pregnancy unless there is: a willful breach of a condition of the contract of service misconduct; or the company is no longer in business
6	Paternity leave		7 days of paid paternity leave per birth if the 2 pre-conditions are fulfilled: under the same employer for at least 12 months notified his employer at least 30 days prior to the expected confinement
7	Flexible working arrangements		Application of flexible work arrangements with their employers. Employer has to state the ground of refusal of the application.
8	Foreign employees		To obtain consent from the Director - General of Labour's before employing foreign workers. (Failure to do so : RM 100K fine and/or 5 years in prison)
9	Notice of sexual harassment		Employers to exhibit clearly the notice on sexual harassment at all times.
10	Discrimination		Director General of Labour has the right to inquire and make orders on discrimination disputes between employers and employees. (Failure to do so will be subjected to fine of not exceeding RM 50K and daily fine of not exceeding RM 1K in case of continuing offence)
11	Presumption of employment		Without a written contract of service project based workers (i.e. Freelancer/Independent contractor) are presumed to be employees, unless proven otherwise.