minimum wage

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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Newly Updated: “Guide to Malaysian Employment Law”

Marcus van Geyzel1 Comment

We have just updated our very popular Guide to Malaysian Employment Law. These updates take into account the significant changes to the Employment Act as a result of the Employment (Amendment) Act 2022 and Employment (Amendment of First Schedule) Order 2022 which came into force on 1 January 2023.

Since the Guide was launched in October 2021 (See: “Just launched: ‘Guide to Malaysian Employment Law'”) it has attracted a constant stream of readers, still averaging in the high thousands of unique views every month.

As mentioned when the Guide was launched, the topics in the Guide have been selected based on feedback from in-house counsel and HR professionals, and cover the usual high-level background legal information they would like to have on-hand, particularly as professionals from other jurisdictions considering employment issues in Malaysia. The feedback we have received on the Guide has been overwhelmingly positive, and we believe it is a unique resource.

We hope the updated Guide will continue to prove useful to all readers. (Guide to Malaysian Employment Law)

Confirmed: New Minimum Wages Order effective 1 May 2022; employers with less than 5 employees exempted

Marcus van Geyzel2 Comments

The widely-anticipated Minimum Wages Order 2022 (“the Order”) was gazetted on 27 April 2022. The Order, pursuant to section 23 of the National Wages Consultative Council Act 2011, increases the minimum wage nationwide to RM1,500 from 1 May 2022. There is a temporary exemption until 31 December 2022 from the increase for employers with less than five employees.

Further details of the Order are set out below.

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New Employment Act amendments may mean law pupils are entitled to minimum wage

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A much-discussed issue in Malaysian legal circles for some time now has been the remuneration of pupils in the legal industry.

Many law graduates are grossly underpaid during their compulsory 9-month pupillage period, with reports of monthly pay as low as RM500. This is well below the current monthly minimum wage in Malaysia, which is RM1,100/1,200. However, pupils fall outside the scope of the Minimum Wages Order, as they are not “employees” under the existing Employment Act (EA).

Proposed amendments to the EA may change this position, and mean that pupils will be entitled to the national minimum wage.

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Just launched: “Guide to Malaysian Employment Law”

Marcus van GeyzelLeave a comment

I have always believed that by writing about the law and related topics, I am not only sharing knowledge with others, but also richly expanding and deepening my own understanding of the topics I write about. This is why I have been consistently publishing my legal writings from my early days of practice, going back 18 years now.

Today, we have launched a Guide to Malaysian Employment Law. This Guide will be hosted on a standalone page on The Malaysian Lawyer, and is a one-stop introductory guide to Malaysian employment law, including categorised links to employment law articles I have published on The Malaysian Lawyer.

The topics in the Guide have been selected based on feedback from in-house counsel and HR professionals, and cover the usual high-level background legal information they would like to have on-hand, particularly as professionals from other jurisdictions considering employment issues in Malaysia.

The Guide will be constantly-evolving, and its contents will be updated from time-to-time. Please share the Guide with others who may find it useful, and leave a comment if you have any feedback, or requests or suggestions for other employment law issues that should be covered.

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