ON 1 May every year, many countries in the world including Malaysia will celebrate Labour Day. Labour Day is celebrated in order to honor all the sacrifices carried out by all workers regardless the working sectors they belong to.

For many years, the Malaysian government has done its very best to protect the welfare of the workers in the country and this includes amendment process of the existing labour laws in order to make them relevant to the current environment.

Among the amendments made is towards the Employment Act 1955 [Act 265], which is regarded as the main piece of labour legislation which protects the rights and welfare of workers particularly in the private sector in the country.

Effective from 1st January 2023, the Employment Act 1955 [Act 265] has incorporated the amendments introduced by the Employment (Amendment) Act 2022. Among the notable amendments which are being made is the legal recognition of flexible working arrangements (FWA).

With that, the Employment Act 1955 [Act 265] has now formally recognised the modern concept of flexible working arrangements (FWA) in Malaysia, or some may call it as work from home (WFH). At the same time, the weekly working hours in Malaysia has also been reduced from 48 to 45 hours.

All the amendments were made in order to safeguard the welfare of workers, in line with the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention. Employees can now be allowed to work flexible hours where they get to choose the location, time and days of work. This would include flexibility to work from home during emergencies.

It is very important for our employers to abide with the latest amendments made to the Employment Act 1955 [act 1955]. Failure on the part of the employers to abide with the latest amendments made to the Employment Act 1955 [Act 1955] can expose them to legal repercussions and see themselves subjected to heavy penalties. The implementation of FWA brings much joy and happiness to workers.

It has been reported recently that Malaysian skilled professionals and employers have shared that salary packages are no longer the top reason employees chose to stay with a company. This is the finding by the 2024 Hays Asia Salary Guide, which surveyed 2,014 skilled professionals and 832 employers from Malaysia.

The survey, conducted across six weeks in late 2023, asked employees looking for new opportunities within the next twelve months to list the top three reasons they wanted to leave their current place of employment. The survey found that a desire to seek new challenges had surpassed low salary packages as the main reason across Asia. 

A similar survey conducted in 2022 identified low salary packages as the primary reason employees were choosing to leave their current jobs. What is most notable from the survey, when it came to employees who stayed, flexible work options were unanimously selected as the most important contribution to that decision, rated even above salary considerations. 

Among committed employees, good work-life balance and experiencing a good fit with managers and colleagues are ranked second and third respectively. Hays, the global leader in workforce solutions and specialist recruitment, released the 2024 Hays Asia Salary Guide. It compiles salary and sector overviews based on real data and a survey of skilled professionals across Malaysia, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and Thailand.

This clearly indicates to us that a flexible working arrangement is the preferable mode of working arrangement for our workers. Many surveys have also been carried out in many countries which indicated workers’ preference towards flexible working arrangements. Some workers are willing to submit their resignation and change work if their employer fails to fulfill their demand for flexible working arrangements. As such, employers need to respect employee wishes and preference on such matters.

It is very important for us to accept the reality that our world has changed significantly since the spread of Covid-19 pandemic more than two years ago. The time has come for us to adapt to the new working mode or arrangement which is more preferable and relevant to the post-pandemic world.

We cannot simply go back to the way of working life which we use to undertake in the past before the Covid-19 pandemic started, namely by traveling daily on roads and facing the traffic jams as well as staying in office buildings from morning until late evening. One thing which the Covid-19 pandemic has taught us is the importance of giving more emphasis to a work-life balance.

During the spread of Covid-19 pandemic, many organisations started to implement flexibility, also known as flexible working arrangement (FWA) and work from home (WFH) policy, which bring a lot of benefits to their workers. Implementing flexibility and working from home policy has reduced significantly the financial burden of the workers by being at home or any location which the workers feel comfortable to do their job without much money needed to be spent.

Work flexibility and working from home policy also allow workers to save their energy and time more without having the need to face daily traffic jams on roads and preparing to go to the office building. Reducing workers’ burden and hardship could in the long term reduce their stress level and allow workers to focus on their jobs. This in return would increase the level of productivity of the company or organisation which the worker belongs to. – May 1, 2024.

* Muzaffar Syah Mallow is associate professor, Faculty of Shariah & Laws, Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia (USIM).

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.