In a very important and critical change, the First Schedule to the Employment Act 1955 (“EA”) has been amended by way of Ministerial Order on 12 August 2022. The change now means that:

The EA now applies to all

The salary threshold to limit applicability of the EA has been removed. The EA now applies to:

“1. Any person who has entered into a contract of service.”

There are exceptions

However, there are certain provisions that have been carved out from being applicable across the board.

The table below sets out the items that are only applicable to the following (Non-Exempt Employees):

• those who earn a monthly wage of RM4,000 or less per month; or
• those who, regardless of how much they earn, are covered by section 2 of the First Schedule, e.g. employees who are, engaged in or who supervise manual labour; operate or maintain vehicles; engaged to work on Malaysian registered vessels; and domestic employees.

With these amendments in place alongside the amendments made under the Employment (Amendment) Act 2022, it is certainly critical for employers to take note of the changes and implement policies and procedures to ensure compliance with the requirements of the Act.

Anticipated Changes to the EA

In short, based on the revisions to the First Schedule, employers must be ready to meet the requirements of the EA in areas that include but are not limited to the following:

• enhancement of maternity leave to 90 days;
• introduction of 3 days' paid paternity leave;
• reduction in...

Read Full Story: https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=7686f639-c243-46bc-802d-daab62...