The laws relating to employment of women, children, and young persons in Malaysia provide some protections but are insufficient in fully protecting their rights. The Employment Act of 1955 focuses on working hours and maternity benefits for women but does not address issues of discrimination, unequal pay, or sexual harassment. Maternity leave provided is only 60 days, which is below international standards. Laws governing child and young worker employment set basic conditions but exploitation still occurs due to poverty and lack of enforcement. Overall, the laws are outdated and require revisions to strengthen protections for vulnerable groups in the workforce.

1. f. The Malaysians Laws relating to the employment of women, children and young
persons are sufficient in protecting their rights. Discuss.
INTRODUCTION
Malaysia is known as a country that has achieved industrialization at a faster pace than its
counterparts in Asia. The development policies, which have strong focus on human resource
development, made a positive impact on Malaysian’s economic growth. A medium-term
economic plan centred on training policies is formulated in pursuing industrialization in 1966
(the First Malaysia Plan). During the Second Malaysia Plan on 1991, the industrial foundation
was firmly established. The manufacturing and service sectors achieved remarkable growth,
with the former accounting for 33.4% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and the latter for
52.4% on 2000. The percentage of workers employed in these two sectors in the total
workforce also rose sharply, respectively.
Supported by stable economic growth, the labour market has enjoyed near full
employment with the unemployment rate shifting from 2% to 3.5% since the middle of the
1990s. However, the employment of women, children and young person also increase in
figures, although in Malaysia, the employment of women is not as high as in the well
developed country like Japan and America. Meanwhile, the employment of children and
young persons are rare compared to African countries. According to Maimunah Aminuddin
(2007), due to poverty, mostly child labours occur in developing countries.
The ratio of male over female is equal in Malaysia according to the 1991 census.
Education factors also contribute to females’ employment. Improving education levels among
Malaysians females also lead to greater demand for labour supply to achieve the
organizational goals, vision, mission, and objectives. The government has also strongly
emphasized on efforts in the field of education, works, production, utility of resources and so
on to become a well developed country. Thus, we can see the active participation of women
and rise of young person in the labour force. There are several Malaysian Laws relating to
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2. the employment of women, children and young person, but I agree that it is not sufficient to
protect their rights.
EMPLOYMENT OF WOMEN
Employment Act (EA) 1955, enforced by the Labour Department, was established to provide
a number of minimum benefits for those workers covered by the Act and to establish certain
rights for both employers in general and employees particularly. Section 2(1) of the EA has
limited the application of Employment Act, 1955 (Act 265 & Regulations) only to employees
earning one thousand five hundred Malaysian ringgit a month (unless exceptions apply). To
analyze the application of EA, it was thought prudent to select a group of participants who
would fall under this group of wage earners that is persons earning MYR 1, 500 and less.
For the employment of women, the Act mostly concern on working hours and
maternity benefits rather than discrimination and equality of pay. An employer may not permit
women to work between 10.00 p.m. and 5.00 a.m. in industrial and agricultural undertakings,
and shall be given rest eleven consecutives hours before her start the new (Section 34(1)).
However, since 2003, the Director-General of Labour has exempted female workers from
the prior mentioned, if she made a written application to the Director General and within 30
days she may imposed to the Minister if she does not satisfied with the decision. Female
employees are also restricted by law to be employed in any underground work (Section 35).
The underground work may include the quarrying.
For maternity protection, provided in that every female workers, married or unmarried,
is entitled to maternity leave period for not less than 60 consecutive days in respect of each
confinement under Section 37(1)(a) and under Section 37(2), shall received the maternity
allowance from the employer. She will not be entitled to maternity allowance if at the time of
confinement she has five or more surviving children (Section 37(1)(c)). She is of course
entitles to maternity leave. Children mean natural children; adopted children are not included
here. Confinement means parturition resulting after at least twenty-eight weeks of pregnancy
in the issue of a child or children, whether alive or dead, and shall for the purpose of this Act
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3. commence and end on the actual day of birth and where two or more children are born at
one confinement shall commence and end on the day of the birth of the last born of such
children, and the word ‘confined’ shall be construed accordingly.
A pregnant women who gave births after two months working for an employer, is not
entitled to maternity allowance. Although she has been employed by the employer at any
time in the four moths immediately before her confinement; but she is not employed by the
employer, for a period of, or periods amounting in the aggregate to, not less than ninety days
during the months immediately before her confinements as she has work only for two
months, the law says it must be at least 90 days. Women workers in the private sector are
given 90 days maternity leave while those in the public sectors are given 42 days maternity
leave. All are given leave for five surviving children. There are also provisions prohibiting an
employer from dismissing women when she is pregnant or when on maternity leaves.
Although women’s employment rights are mentioned under the EA, however
Sarvinder Kaur Sandhu (2007) in his study related to the Malaysian Employment Legislation
for Women at Work, to they are not sufficient. For instance, the act provides for maternity
benefits such as maternity leave of only 60 days, which falls far below the requirement set by
the convention of the International Labour Organization (ILO) under provisions C 183
Maternity Protection Convention (2000), which requires member states to provide at least 14
weeks of maternity leaves. There are no mentions of nursing allowance, care or facilities for
nursing mothers in the EA. Besides, he also comes out with the issue of inequality of wages,
inequality of the employment opportunity, lack of maternity benefits, lack of child care
facilities, and the presence of sexual harassment.
In addition, Sandhur (2007) find out that many women report experiencing
rising levels of stress, resentment, guilt, erosion in intimate relationships, and a loss of quality
time with children and other family members. Pocock (2005) also comes out with the similar
reports at the back years that are from the National Study in Australia, it is indicated that in
2005, 67% of employees said they did not have enough time with their children, 63% did not
have enough time with their spouse, and 55% did not have enough time for themselves.
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4. The issues of maternity leaves in Malaysia is quite pressure, so far no action really
taken to reveal the issues. Tchung (2006) stated that Datuk Seri Shahrizat has suggested
that all working women should be entitled to a minimum 60 day’s maternity leave. She added
it is a healthy amount of leave to start with; 2 months should allow a mother to have sufficient
time to bond with their newly-born child, to arrange care for the child upon her returning to
work, as well as recover physically from the child birth experience. Moreover, merely having
maternity leave is not good enough. There are several issues need to be looked at.
First, if the maternity leave is granted, will it be paid or unpaid? Obviously, if it is
unpaid for women who work as a manager and could earns about MYR 8,000 per month will
not going to take the maternity leave as she will not give up the high pay. Secondly, if the
paid maternity leave is allowed, how much should a mother on leave is paid? Would it be
50% of her pay, 30% or a flat rate? The pay rate must be able to satisfy pregnant women in
that it will be acceptable price to pay for taking leave. Lastly the issue of job security that is
whether or not to be able to return to the same organisation, same position due to the long
leaves. It is true that the Employment Act does provides that an employer cannot terminate
the contract of employment for women who is taking the maternity leave, however they have
right to replace the position for the organization’s benefit. So what will happen to the women
if she is demoted to the lower position or transferred to other department or position with new
job description and so on after she came back from the leave? Will there be any statutory
protection to prevent this from happening?
Trevino and Nelson (2007) in the books of Ethics in Business Management, there is a
case whereby a new mother, named Lisa, whereby her maternity leaves result in
discrimination. As she were on leave, her employer has filled in her position without her
knows. In my opinion, that is really unethical. Of course the employer have the right to
replace workers who are on extended leaves because of illness, disability, or other reasons
such as finishing education, but he should still cover for the rights of the replaced worker. In
fact, under the United Kingdom Law, the women are entitled to 1 year maternity leaves.
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5. I think Malaysia should not introduce statutory maternity leave. It remains to be seen
whether Malaysian women will be afforded similar benefits and to what extent it will be
favourable enough to encourage women to take up maternity leaves. Women seeking to
argue for the introduction of maternity leave for all should not be defeated by a statutory
provision which dates back to 1955. The cut-off point, MYR 1,500 is neither realistic nor
acceptable today, considering many women now earn more than that, be it per month or per
annum. Introducing qualifications based on wages also has the inevitable effect of being
discriminatory as it is assumes that women who earn above a certain amount of money
should not be entitled to maternity leave and should not even consider getting pregnant since
they are better off remaining at work. It is also assumed that women who do not earn that
much money are better off staying at home and taking care of their children instead of
returning to work as it would not make any difference.
Another dilemma about the maternity leave is that whether the leave given makes
easy or difficult to the women. At the good sight, the maternity leave is given to protect the
mother’s physical condition during the pregnancy and childbirth, and also to protect bonds
between the newly birth and the mother. However, in the long run the prospects of career will
be damaged. As we all known, nowadays, mothers are not only to take care of their child, but
to give the best to them in terms of financial to support educations and better livings. Tchung
(2007) also quoted that Malaysia, being the conservative country, is not ready to introduce
family-friendly policies. With regard to the policies, parents are able to decide who should be
the primary child-carer. Fathers are not entitled to any time off to care their child, assumes
that it is logics as men are still stereotyped as breadwinners in our society. More, he added
the predominant view is that if anyone should be staying at home, it should be the mothers.
Other than that, as mentioned earlier, the Employment Act 1955 does not cover the
problems of sexual harassment at the workplace. It does sets out minimum standards for
working conditions for females, but has no provisions to prohibit sexual harassment or
discrimination at the workplace. This is very unsatisfactory as the EA itself is limited in scope
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6. as it applies only to master-servant relationship, which is stated in Section 2, the contract for
service whereas more and more women working outside these traditional relationships.
In order to improve the rights of women at work, acknowledge their contributions to
the economy and their needs to balance work and family life, the Employment Act 1955
relating to the employment of women shall be revised. While the concept of maternity leave
has its fair share of advantages and disadvantages, Malaysia should not hesitate to offer
greater protection and incentives to women. The Government must take positive measures
to ensure that all female workers are given such maternity rights as well, whereas maternity
leave is currently available for civil servants. Striving for equality for all is a must.
EMPLOYMENT OF CHILDREN AND YOUNG PERSONS
The exploitation of child labour by unscrupulous and uncaring employer has been highlighted
by the media repeatedly from time to time. According to Maimunah Aminuddin (2007),
serious labour shortage in 1990s facing the manufacturing sectors forced employers to
recruit young people in breach of the law. Recently, the use of foreign workers increases
sharply and causes the demand for child labour minimized in Malaysia. The International
Labour Organization (ILO) had convention on the employment of children since 1993. In
Malaysia however, the government decide to ratify a new convention outlawing the worst
form of child labour.
There is no such law Malaysia that prohibit children from being employed, but as far
as the laws concern, it is necessary to handle the abuse and protect from the exploitation of
children and young persons. In the Children and Young Persons Act (1991), also enforced by
the Department of Labour’s, covers employment in West Malaysia only, provides the rules
and condition to hire children and young persons. Similar restrictions also included in Sabah
and Sarawak Labour Ordinance. Under Section 1A (1), a child is defined as any person who
has not completed his fourteenth years of age. Young person means any person who, not
being a child has not completed his sixteenth years of age. So, any person under the age of
14 is categorized as a child and those who are 14 to 16 are young person. As he or she
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7. attains s the age of 16, in employment is considered as adult and therefore is excluded from
any special considerations.
Section 2(2) under the act prescribed the conditions of employment for a child. They
are employment involving the light work suitable to his capacity in any undertakings carried
out by his family, employment in public entertainment, in accordance with the terms and
conditions if a license granted in that behalf under this Act, employment requiring him to
perform work approved or sponsored by the Federal Government or the Government of any
State and carried on in any school, training institution or training vessel, and employment as
an apprentice under a written apprenticeship contract approved by the Director General with
whom a copy of such contract has been filed.
Children shall not work between the hours of 8.00 p.m. and 7.00 p.m. and they must
be permitted a rest of 30 minutes after every three consecutive hours of work. They may not
work more than 6 hours per day. But for child working in any public entertainment the
restriction of night works does not applied. These can be found under Section 5(1) and (2) of
the Act.
Further under Section 3 of the Act prescribed the employments engagement for
young persons. They are allowed to engage in all as mentioned in the previous section,
whether or not the takings is carried on by their family. They are allowed to be a domestic
servant employed in any office shop, cinema, club and factory and so on. For females they
may not work in hotels, bars, restaurant or clubs unless this organization is controlled by their
parents. It is provided that with the approval by Director General, a female young person can
engage in any employment in a club (entertainment premise) which is not managed by her
parents or guardian.
For young people, under Section 6(1) of the act, are not permitted to work between
8.00 p.m. and 6.00 a.m. and are entitled to rest break of at least 30 minutes every 4 hours of
work. The maximum hours of work allowed are 7 in a day but for apprentice they may work
for full 8 hours per day. The restriction of night work does not apply to young person
employed in public entertainment and agriculture sector is stipulated under Section 6(2). The
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8. Factories and Machinery Act also helps to protect the rights of young persons, where they
are prohibited to carry out work involving machinery or in proximity to such machinery.
As the parents concern, they prefer their children to work for the reason of to avoid
them from criminals and other unsociable activities, and to use their time productively which
is better for them since they cannot cope with the school. On the other hand, some parents
might pressure their child to work for supplement family’s income. However, the existence of
child labour reflected the bad sight of economics development. According to the ILO, 250
million children from 5 to 15 do works. In Malaysia, the last nation-wide survey in 1980 found
73,475 child workers between the ages of 10 to 14 working full-time. According to Doraisamy
(2006), three-quarters of children work in family enterprises, especially stores, stalls,
agricultures, and light industries. International reasons for child labour are poverty, war and
dislocation of shattered family structures or a combination of all three. There are reasons
why they have to work which includes comes from broken families, alcoholic parents, larger
family size, non mandatory schooling and several other reasons.
A child who has entered into a contract of service may sue the employer in the event
of breach in his personal capacity because such contract of service cannot be enforced
against a child by the employer. This is clearly stated in the Act under Section 2(a). The child
may also bring a complaint against an employer pertaining to the wages to the Minister of
Human Resources, who will setup a board of inquiry to deliberate on the complaint and
deliver an order. Admittedly, this provision under Section 8 has never been used. Therefore,
as I further discuss, loopholes exists in the Acts that might be used by the employers to
escape conviction.
Under the United Nation Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the loopholes
being highlighted in the Employment for Children and Young Person Act include the
minimum age to work. Under the Act there is no minimum age stipulated. Children are
considered all those under the age of 14 and below, and this is completely unacceptable,
especially since as a signatory to the CRC, the Sate Party must imposed a minimum age is
required for entry into the workforce under Article 38. But, Malaysia does not accede to the
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9. ILO Convention No. 138 which imposed a minimum age for entry into the workforce. Also, no
legislation is provided governing minimum wage for minors who work. Thus, children may
work for long hours for little or no pay at all. Indeed the Act allowed children to work for
longer hours than adult. For example apprentice may work 8 hours a day.
Benefits such as holiday, annual leaves, or other benefits to children and young
persons who work also not prescribed under the Act. This made certain to the employer that
children are the cheapest form of labour and can be found in more hazardous occupation.
The Employment Act 1955 and The Workmen’s Compensation Act 1952 and other ‘adults’
act only apply to those of 18 years of age and above. Therefore the children and young
person are not bound to inform to register children with SOCSO or with EPF. Thus the
employers are not liable to provide any neither compensation nor protection in case they
were injured. Only the children in the entertainment industry like circus is accepted to the
previous rule since the children must obtain a license from the Ministry before they perform.
The penalties of MYR 2,000 or 6 months jail for the first offend and MYR 3,000 or 2 years jail
for second or subsequent offends are completely inadequate to safeguard and protect
children. Furthermore, cases may only be brought before a Magistrate who has limited power
to penalize.
The Child Protection Act 1991 (CPA) covers a wide range of types of abuse and
neglect namely physical, emotional or sexual abuse, exposure to moral danger,
abandonment, exposure to untreated illness, lack of remedial action by the guardian, or even
where the child is found begging. Other Sections raise presumptions where the law can
intervene if the child is being transferred to traffic out of the country. The trafficked may
includes seriously dangerous commonly relating to drugs and weapons. The CPA is unique
because in that doctors and medicals practitioners are under a legal duty to report any
suspected child abuse and neglect cases to the protector and police have to be alert for them
to carry out investigations. If the medical practitioners failed to do so, he would be liable to a
fine of MYR 1,000. It is significant that very few countries have mandatory reporting.
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10. However, despite this provision, doctors still remain mum until they finalised their
observations.
CONCLUSION
In these Millennia, the participation of women, children and young person in the labour force
has become the big issues in industrials undertakings. Their contributions help our country to
increase the national income. At some point, their rights are seen as being neglected in
employment. To reduce cost, irresponsible employers exploited these workers for a minimum
gain and for their own benefits. Therefore serious attention should be given pertaining the
issues of rights for the women, children and young person. Inadequate guidelines or
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11. provisions provided by the Act has lead to serious problems but we must aware that though
there are as many laws enacted, but not enforced, then it is much a wasteful steps. To
protect their interests, I believe that government especially the Labour Department plays
important roles. The effectiveness of the Labour Department itself can help to protect their
rights in many ways.
REFERENCES
1. Maimunah Aminuddin. (2007) Malaysian Industrial Relation and Employment Law. 6th
ed. Kuala Lumpur: McGraw Hill.
2. Siti Zaharah Jamaluddin. (2002) Pengenalan kepada Akta Kerja 1955. 2nd ed. Kuala
Lumpur: Penerbit Universiti Malaya.
3. Trevino L.K. and Nelson K.A.. (2007) Managing Business Ethics: Straight Talk about
How To Do It Right. 4th ed. USA: John Wiley & Sons.
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12. 4. Sarvinder Kaur Sandhu. (2007) Malaysian Employment Legislation for Women at
Work: A Socio-Legal Study on Malaysian Secretaries/Clerks. Kuala Lumpur: UIAM.
5. Pocock B. (2005) The Work/Life Collision: What Work is doing to Australians and
What to Do about It. Sydney: Federation Press Report.
6. Zarizana Abdul Aziz and Anna Marison. (2001) Status of Women under Malaysian
Laws. Penang
7. Tchung W..(2006) Maternity Leaves for Malaysian Women [online]
http://wengtchung.blogspot.com on 13 August 2010, 2.00 p.m.
8. Doraisamy S.. (2006) Situation of Young Workers in Malaysia [online]
http://www.mtuc.org.my/young_workers.html
9. Women’s and Children’s Rights and the Protection Offered by Domestic Law [online]
http://www. Lawyerment.com.my/library/publ/fmly/review/d_5.html
10. Outline of Labour Market [online]
http://www.mhlw.go.jp/english/topics/globalization/dl/38-08.pdf
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