IT is now up to the Human Resources Ministry to present the amendments to the Sabah Labour Ordinance to parliament for their swift implementation.
Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor said 12 amendments had been drafted and approved by the state cabinet and legislature.
The amendments represent a 75% overhaul of the state ordinance and the first major changes since the law was last amended nearly 20 years ago, he said.
"The ordinance came into effect in 1950, and the first amendment was made after four decades in 2005.
“Nineteen years is a long time. The laws need to be reviewed and improved to keep up with the times," he said at the Labour Day celebrations in Kota Kinabalu today.
"I now leave it to the human resources minister and his deputy to present the Sabah Labour Ordinance amendments to parliament so that we can implement the new laws quickly."
The amendments were to have been presented in parliament in November last year.
It is now expected to be tabled in the June parliament meeting.
The amendments include longer maternity leave from 60 to 98 days; paternity leave of up to seven days; and reduction of working hours from 48 to 45 per week.
More than two million workers in the state will benefit from the changes.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim had announced that employees in Sabah and Sarawak could look forward to longer maternity and paternity leave, as well as be protected against discrimination and sexual harassment at work, after the labour ordinances of the two states were streamlined with the Employment Act 1955. – May 7, 2024.
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