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Five lawyers share their insights on the impact of the Employment Act amendments

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The past three years has been a busy, tumultuous, and very interesting period for HR and employment and industrial relations professionals in Malaysia. While 2020-21 saw employment lawyers — like most of the world — being kept occupied by the effects of the pandemic, and collectively learning on our feet, 2022 also threw lots of new issues our way, as clients adjusted to the new post-pandemic norms.

In Malaysia, a hot topic in 2022 was the long-awaited amendments to the Employment Act (“EA”)(originally scheduled to come into force on 1 September 2022, but postponed to 1 January 2023). I have already shared my views on the wide-ranging impact of (and some on-going uncertainty caused by) these major amendments. In this article, I canvassed the views of five fellow Malaysian employment lawyers on the EA amendments. I invited Amardeep Singh Toor, Donovan Cheah, Janice Anne Leo, Selvamalar Alagaratnam, and Wong Keat Ching to share insights on the following with readers of The Malaysian Lawyer:

  • Their views on the EA amendments.
  • The key areas their clients have been focusing on to adapt to the changes.
  • Whether there is still non-compliance among employers.
  • What issues/trends will keep employment lawyers busy this year.

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Employment law: 2021 review and 2022 forecast

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I am kicking off 2022 by looking back for a quick recap of the 2021 Malaysian employment law and industrial relations highlights, and a brief outline of what I expect to be the key developments in the coming year.

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Malaysia Employment Act amendments: 7 key changes for employers to note

Marcus van Geyzel10 Comments

[Update: The Bill was tabled for its second reading and passed on 21 March 2022. There were only two minor amendments from the first draft which was the subject of this article, in relation to maternity and paternity leave. These have been updated in the text below.]

Wide-ranging amendments to Malaysia’s Employment Act 1955 (“the EA”) are now going through Parliament. The Employment (Amendment Bill) 2021 (“the Bill”) was tabled for its first reading on 25 October 2021.

The Explanatory Statement to the Bill states that it seeks to amend the EA “to comply with the international standards and practices as required by the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, the Malaysia-United States Labour Consistency Plan and the International Labour Organization”. It further states that the purpose of the amendments, among others, is “to provide for the protection against discrimination and forced labour, and to provide for maternity benefits”.

As the Bill is only in its first reading, I expect some changes before it is finalised and passed. The current draft of the Bill does appear quite disjointed in parts, and there are some inconsistencies that will need to be cleaned up. It is worth noting that many of the amendments contained in the Bill have been mooted as far back as 2017, so while the fact that the Bill has been tabled is promising, there is no guarantee that it will be passed — though for political reasons it does appear very likely that it will happen this time.

The current draft of the Bill contains comprehensive amendments — there are 46 sections in total — but at this stage I will briefly set out the key changes that employers should take note of, along with some commentary.

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