THE Employment Act 1955 (Act 265) and the Labour Ordinances of Sabah (Cap 67) and Sarawak (Cap 76) apply to Peninsular Malaysia and to Sabah and Sarawak respectively.
The act and ordinances provide for a minimum standard in the terms and conditions of work which form the contract of service between the employer and the employee.
The Employment Act 1955 does not apply to all employees. It only covers the categories of employees listed in the First Schedule to the Act.
According to the Statistics Department, the employees’ category accounted for 75.7% of the total employed persons in January 2023 (16.16 million persons).
Under the act, an employee is entitled to a minimum of 11 paid public holidays.
If any of the 11 gazetted public holidays falls on a rest day, the following working day would be a paid holiday.
An employer is under a duty to put up at a conspicuous part of the place of the employment, before the commencement of each calendar year, a notice specifying the public holidays to which the employee is entitled.
Under the act, an employee who is employed on a monthly, weekly, daily, hourly or other similar basis may be required by his employer to work on any paid holiday.
However, in addition to the holiday pay for that day, the employee is entitled to be paid two days wages – Section 60D(3)(a).
A piece-rated employee will be paid twice the ordinary rate per piece plus the salary payable for that day.
An employee is also entitled to travelling allowance for that day if such allowance is payable under the terms of his agreement – Section 60D(3)(b).
For any overtime work carried out by an employee on any paid holiday in excess of the normal hours of work, he is entitled to three times his hourly rate of pay, or in the case of piece-rated employees, three times the ordinary rate per piece – Section 60D(3)(aa) and (aaa).
Former Treasury secretary-general Tan Sri Mohd Sheriff Mohd Kassim rightly wrote in 2019 that companies “have to pay their employees three to four times more than the daily wage rate when they work on public holidays”.
“Some unscrupulous employers resort to using illegal foreign workers and exploiting them to avoid paying more.”
He added that one country in Europe, noted for its addiction to the holiday culture, became insolvent and had to be bailed out by international institutions.
They agreed to help but with strict conditions that in addition to the structural economic, fiscal and institutional reforms to remove the rigidity and obstacles faced by the economy, the debtor country had to stop disrupting the labour market with wasteful holiday benefits.
That one country was not named, but the message was clear: having too many public holidays is an extravagant practice that could become a big issue in economic management.
On account of the above, it is not the whole truth that an unscheduled public holiday would not be “disturbing” the private sector; even its cost can be extravagant. – The Vibes, April 21, 2023
Hafiz Hassan reads The Vibes
