What Changes Were Made On The Employment Act 2022?

Shorter working hours The maximum weekly working hours have been reduced from 48 hours per week to 45 hours per week. Employees are also entitled to 30 minutes of rest after 5 consecutive hours of work. A working day should not have more than 8 working hours and should not be spread across more than 10 hours per day. Employees are entitled of 1 day rest per week. Increase in working arrangement flexibility An employee has the option to apply for flexible working arrangements. Employee can make a written request to the employer and the employer has to respond to the application request within 60 days. Extended maternity and paternity leave Maternity leave has increased from 60 days to 98 days. Paternity leave has been introduced in this act. Only limited to 5 confinements, fathers are entitled to 7 days of paid paternity leave under these 2 conditions: Employment with the current company has to be at least 12 months . Employer must be notified at least 30 days prior to the expected birth date. Protection against forced termination of employment on pregnancy grounds Employers cannot forcefully terminate an employee when employee is pregnant unless: Employee has breached condition(s) of the service contract Misconduct in workplace Closure of the business Protection of foreign workers Employers must receive permission from the Director General before recruiting a foreign worker. Failure to do so may result in a fine of not more than RM10000.00, imprisonment of not more than 5 years, or both. Protection on force labour What is forced labour? Forced labour is when the employer threatens, manipulates, deceives, and forces an employee to do any activity/service/work and then prevents employee from leaving the workplace after such activity/service/work is completed. Force labour is a serious offense with a punishment of not more than RM10000.00, imprisonment of less than 2 years, or both. Protection from sexual harassment Employers are required to make effort in raising awareness on sexual harassment in the workplace to educate employees. Protection from discrimination The Director-General of Labour has the authority to investigate and provide rulings regarding discrimination between employees and employer. Failure to comply with the Director General’s order can result in a fine not exceeding RM50,000.00 and for continuing offence, a daily fine of up to RM1,000.00 for each day the offence continues. Advance of salary Employees can request for only 1 month of advance salary unless it is for the purpose of: Purchase of house, landed property, renovation of property Purchase of motor vehicles Purchase of company shares Purchase of computer Medical and education fee for self and spouse

Who Does The Employment Act Affect?

Employment Act applies to all employees regardless of wages. Including employees working in these fields: Manual labour Supervisors of employees who engage in manual labour Operation / maintenance of mechanical vehicles Domestic servants Some subsections in Employment Act will not apply to employees earning more than RM4,000.00 per month... More

What Must Employers Do Now?

Employers need to revise their existing employment contract and employee handbooks to ensure that it is in accordance with the latest Employment Act 2022. An employment contract is a written agreement that references the Employment Act and includes the termination clause of employment.

Maximum Working Hours - Employment Act

Before 1 Jan 2023, the maximum working hours per week for non-shift and shift employees is 48 hours. From 1 Jan 2023 onwards, maximum working hours per week will be reduced to 45 hours, for all employees under the scope of EA 1955, irrespective of whether they are non-shift employees or shift employees. Apart from that, the other existing provisions in the EA 1955 that governs working hours and shift work remain unchanged.

KWSP

HRDF

Reduced maximum working hours for non-shift and shift employees

This amendment allowed the law to permit that, by agreement between employers and employees, where the number of hours of work on one or more days of the week is less than 8 hours (for example, some employees are required to work a half day on Saturday or some are not even required to work on Saturday), on the remaining days of the week, the restriction of 8 hours may be exceeded; nevertheless, no employee may be required to work for more than 9 hours in a single day or for more than 45 hours in a single week.

There are 4 scenarios shared by Malaysian Employers Federation, 3 of which are for non-shift employees, and 1 for shift employees. With the understanding that businesses may have different working hours arrangements, the scenarios below are examples relevant to an average businesses:

Scenario 1: Non-Shift employees working on an 8 hours per day (Excluding Break), 5 days per week

This is within the requirements of EA 1955, because the maximum 8 hours per day and correspondingly with total hours of work per week of 40 hours is within the limit of maximum working hours of 45 per week.
Overtime limit remains at the maximum 4 hours per day on the working days.

Day	Start Time	End Time	Working Hours	Lunch Hours	Overtime Hours (Max)
Mon	09:00AM	06:00PM	8	1	4
Tue	09:00AM	06:00PM	8	1	4
Wed	09:00AM	06:00PM	8	1	4
Thu	09:00AM	06:00PM	8	1	4
Fri	09:00AM	06:00PM	8	1	4
Sat	-	-	-	-	-
Sun	-	-	-	-	-
		Total:	40 (below 45 hours)

Scenario 2a: Non-shift employees working on 8 hours per day (Excluding break), 6 days per week

While the 8-hour limit is adhered to for 5 days in the week, the Company can observe a further 5 hours on the 6th day, to ensure compliance to the maximum 45 working hours per week.
Overtime limit remains at the maximum 4 hours per day on 5 working days.

Day	Start Time	End Time	Working Hours	Lunch Hours	Overtime Hours (Max)
Mon	09:00AM	06:00PM	8	1	4
Tue	09:00AM	06:00PM	8	1	4
Wed	09:00AM	06:00PM	8	1	4
Thu	09:00AM	06:00PM	8	1	4
Fri	09:00AM	06:00PM	8	1	4
Sat	08:00AM	01:00PM	5	-	-
Sun	-	-	-	-	-
		Total:	45 (Max)

Scenario 2b: Non-shift employees working on less than 8 hours per day (Excluding break), 6 days per week

While the 8-hour limit is adhered to for 5 days in the week, the Company can observe a further 5 hours on the 6th day, to ensure compliance to the maximum 45 working hours per week.
Overtime limit remains at the maximum 4 hours per day on 5 working days.

Day	Start Time	End Time	Working Hours	Lunch Hours	Overtime Hours (Max)
Mon	09:00AM	05:30PM	7.5	1	4
Tue	09:00AM	05:30PM	7.5	1	4
Wed	09:00AM	05:30PM	7.5	1	4
Thu	09:00AM	05:30PM	7.5	1	4
Fri	09:00AM	05:30PM	7.5	1	4
Sat	09:00AM	05:30PM	7.5	1	-
Sun	-	-	-	-	-
		Total:	45 (Max)		20

Scenario 3: Non-shift employees working on a 9 hours per day (Excluding break), 5 days per week

By agreement under the employment contract, if the number of hours of work in one or more days is less than 8 hours, the limit of 8 hours may be extended to a maximum of 9 hours on the remaining days, subject always to the maximum of 45 hours per week.

Day	Start Time	End Time	Working Hours	Lunch Hours
Mon	09:00AM	05:00PM	7	1
Tue	09:00AM	05:00PM	7	1
Wed	09:00AM	07:00PM	9	1
Thu	09:00AM	07:00PM	9	1
Fri	09:00AM	06:00PM	8	1
Sat	08:00AM	01:00PM	5	-
Sun	-	-	-	-
		Total:	45 (Max)

Scenario 4: Shift employees' possible shift roster adjustment

“Shift work” is defined as “…work which by reason of its nature requires to be carried on continuously or continually, as the case may be, by two or more shifts.”

Employees engaged in shift work may be required to work for more than eight (8) hours per day, subject to the requirement or more than 45 hours per week. It is provided that the average number of hours worked over three (3) weeks does not exceed 45 hours per week.

Working hours may need to be adjusted to ensure compliance with the new amendments. This may include extending the lunch break, or what is termed as “period of leisure” in the EA 1955 so that the normal hours of work is 7.5 hours on six (6) working days a week. Companies will be liable to pay overtime if their working hours exceed 45 hours per week.

	Week 1	Week 2	Week 3
Mon	12	12	12
Tue	12	12	3
Wed	12	12	-
Thu	12	12	-
Fri	12	12	-
Sat	-	-	-
Sun	-	-	-
Total	60	60	15

Total working hours over 3 weeks: 60 hours + 60 hours + 15 hours = 135 hours.
Average working hours per week: 135 hours/ 3 weeks = 45 hours.
Referring to the table above and as a further explanation of paragraph above, although a shift worker’s hours of work is 12 hours, no overtime is payable.

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Employment Act Amendments 2022

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