A big jump in EA1955 Amendment 2022.
This is quite late post about EA Malaysia. I know. But this amendment is too big for me to not read and write about it. As far as my layman understanding, amendment from Act A1651 (which is the technical name for EA amended and passed in 2022), there are three big changes for employees to know in terms of rights and employee-employer relationship.
The three categories are:
And, before you start to read, please be informed that my writing is an article from a layman to layman (or laypeople?). So, any explanation is extra words to tune the legal jargon down to layman lingo.
First, let's dive in to the definition of employees. Several changes have been made in EA to keep up with current socioeconomic and linguistic norms. 2022 amendment added "apprentice". Both in term of employment definition and length of contract to be classified as apprentice. Exchanged the word "servant" to "employee" in the whole act. Quick internet search shows "employee" defined with "wage", whereas "servant" did not mention "wage" in online dictionary. Linguistic and legal impact are way deeper than I can understand. And lastly, the meaning of employee applies to all those who work with a "contract of service". All these roughly makes the Employment Act cover more working individuals.
Next is maternity leave. Female employees are eligible for maternity leave up to 98 consecutive days. Before this, it was 60 days in a row. And now, the husbands or fathers get 7 consecutive days of paternity leave. A policy that was debated by policymakers and activists in at least the last 5 years. The best part for me is, 98 consecutive days is much easier to calculate. 14 full calendar week. Start leave on Tuesday, one will be working on the 99th day Monday. Friday? 99th day is Thursday. (I know, just apply annual leave for those two remaining days).
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Working hours and working situations are the most technical part of new amendment EA. In new amendment, maximum weekly working hours are down to 45 hours from 48 hours a week before amendment. I know from the news article, government wants to comply with ILO standard, but I cannot find ILO documentation about this. Let's get help from our legal and HR practitioners to help on ILO regulations. (Tag them if you know them). If employers did not make any working schedule changes, employees will get three extra OT hours from employers. That's a good news!
And, speaking of OT, as of new definition and regulation, anyone employed with salary below RM4000 (four thousand ringgit) a month, will be entitled for overtime pay, among other benefits. Other benefits that include rest day work, public holiday rate and so on.
With the experience from Covid, flexible working hours (or conditions) are written in the law. With the constraints of Covid and technology advancement from telecommunications and apps library, flexible working sections are much welcome for working environment in the future. It's new. I'm pretty much sure there will be some issues and improvement for this part.
One more to add, is the conditions and presumptions of employees and employers are added in this amendment. When the amended act is printed, it will be explained in section 101c about who shall be labelled as employee, who shall be labelled as employer. One example is, "where he is provided with tools, materials or equipments by another person to execute work;". This sentence is presumed he/she is an employee. This example is easier to see if one is employee or employer, as tools and materials are mostly physical item to be used, see, audited, and documented to determine one is an employee. Will this cover gig workers and short terms employment agreement (like wedding catering helpers), that is yet to see.
This is interesting to see as employee. The EA is leaning towards employees in new amendment. Malaysian union activity is so poor for employees to get competitive wage and remunerations. At least the policymakers put some guidelines and regulations so people can have proper wage, rest, and protection is a big help.