Enforce 45-hour work per week limit strictly, MTUC urges minister

The Penang division of the Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) today urged Putrajaya to enforce the 45 hours per week work limit as per the amendment to the Employment Act 1955/22.

This comes after they received complaints about employers refusing to comply with the new law, which includes meal breaks in the stipulated 45 hours.

In a statement, Penang MTUC secretary K Veeriah (above) said the amendment to the Employment Act passed by the Dewan Rakyat last year clearly illustrated that the 45 hours per week must include meal breaks and not otherwise.

"In the context of the above-said objective of Parliament, we find it disgusting that employers are belligerently circumventing their obligation to confirm with the intention of Parliament in reducing the weekly working hours of workers.

"And we in the MTUC Penang Division, are of the view that such employers are in contempt of the legislature.

"We call upon the human resources minister to direct the Labour Department to enforce the working hours amendments strictly - an absolute reduction of weekly working hours to 45 hours a week - inclusive of meal breaks and nothing else," he said.

Human Resources Minister V Sivakumar

The Parliament had last year passed several amendments to the Employment Act, also known as Act 265, which included the reduction of work hours from 48 to 45 per week.

Since the passing of the amendments, the Act had received royal assent on April 26, 2022 and was published in the Federal Government Gazette on May 10 the same year.

It was initially supposed to take effect on Sept 1, 2022, but had since been postponed to January 1 this year (2023).

The then-human resources minister M Saravanan reportedly said that this was to ensure that changes to the First Schedule of the Act are carefully worded so as not to confuse or mislead on the categories of employees that will fall under the Act’s ambit. - Mkini