The Employment Act 1955 is the fundamental legislation that governs the employment practice & the employer-employee relationship in West Malaysia & Labuan.
(While for Sabah & Sarawak, they are governed by their respective Labour Ordinance, which is almost a different story altogether)
To my knowledge, how it started was way back during the British Colonial Administration. Back then, Indian & Chinese labourers were imported from India & China to work in rubber plantations & mines respectively. So the British introduced legislations to regulate the importation of these foreign labourers.
Enter the enactment of Labour Code 1933 that had provided a benchmark for the terms & conditions in employment contract esp for these foreign labourers.
After independence, it was amended & repealed by the Employment Ordinance 1955, which is the base for the enactment of the Employment Act 1955 today.
Now, the Act is pretty old, as you can see. It’s almost 70 years old. And remember, it was curated back then for rubber plantations & mines workers. So like a lot of old things, it could be outdated. What is practical then, might not be practical today.
Some rules in the Act has not changed for eon years but over the decades, business has evolved. So when we are applying the Act to our day-to-day business, remember, we need to exercise a lot of common sense.
For a better, fair & sound judgement, if it makes sense.
Bimbo
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