The Employment (Amendment) Act 2022 (“the Amendment Act”) and the Employment (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 2022 (“Amendment Order”) are slated to come into force on 1 January 2023. Employer group’s hopes that the implementation date will once again be deferred were dashed when Human Resources Minister V. Sivakumar announced on 21 December 2022 that the amendments will come into operation on 1 January 2023 as previously planned.
Some of the salient changes made to the Employment Act 1955 (“the Act”) through the Amendment Act and the Amendment Order include the following:
An “apprenticeship contract”, previously defined as a written contract for a period of not less than two years, is amended to impose a minimum duration of six months and a maximum duration of 24 months for such contract.
The following formula is to be applied to calculate wages for an employee who works for less than a whole month (i.e. where he commenced employment after the first day of the month, or where his employment was terminated before the end of the month, or where he took unpaid leave or leave to comply with written law relating to national service):
There is no explanation on how the “number of days of the particular period” is to be calculated. Under the Act, monthly wages are currently calculated by using a denominator of 26 days to represent the number of days which an employee is required to work in any given month.
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