Employers in Malaysia can choose not to offer flexible work

The Malaysian government does not intend to set a blanket mandate for firms to implement flexible working.

The amendment on flexible working hours under the employment act does not force employers to implement it but instead offers incentives to increase workers’ productivity, said V Sivakumar, Malaysia’s Minister of Human Resources.

He explained, “With the flexible working hours amendment to the Employment Act 1955, it just becomes a legal form of incentive. However, there is no compulsion. It is meant to be an improvement to the system and the way we work in this country.”

“Not everyone can follow the same working hours. For example, there are some who cannot work from 8am till 5pm due to matters such as family obligations, which may see them being late to work and having to work late hours too.”

“We want them to work for a fixed period of time per day. So, what is the issue if they can work for the required number of hours even if they do not follow the fixed schedule?”

READ: Malaysia to provide more guidelines on implementation of flexible work

Amendments to Malaysia’s employment act were originally scheduled to take effect on September 1. However, due to employer requests for more time to recover from the hit of COVID-19, this has been postponed till January 1 next year.