Workers who earn less than RM2,000 or are not involved in manual work(or supervision) are generally not entitled to the worker RIGHTS provided for in the Employment Act 1955.
For all other workers, their worker rights are what is found in their employment agreement/contract and nothing more.
"employee" means any person or class of persons-
(a) included in any category in the First Schedule to the extent specified therein; or
(b) in respect of whom the Minister makes an order under subsection (3) or section 2A;
And, the First Schedule, amongst others say '... 1. Any person, irrespective of his occupation, who has entered into a contract of service with an employer under which such person's wages do not exceed two thousand ringgit a month....' , and '...Any person who, irrespective of the amount of wages he earns in a month, has entered into a contract of service with an employer in pursuance of which-(1) he is engaged in manual labour ...'
In short, generally if your wages is more than RM2,000 - you cannot say or rely on even the MINIMUM workers rights as provided for in the Employment Act 1955...
This is a MAJOR PROBLEM for workers - this is why the MINIMUM WORKER RIGHTS provided for in the Employment Act should be made into MINIMUM rights for ALL workers (or at the very least be extended to workers earning RM5,000 or less, ...
YES, a worker may start employment with RM1,500 but in time, his wages rise and it is sad that when it crosses the RM2,000 mark, the workers cannot anymore rely on even the minimum worker rights in the Employment ACT.
In an employer-employee relationship, sadly, the reality is that the EMPLOYER is the dominant party - and most workers may not even have the CHOICE to even ensure that the employment contract/agreement they sign even contains all the different MINIMUM workers rights... The MALAYSIAN government using LAWS must protect all workers to ensure that all Workers in Malaysia receive at the very least BASIC MINIMUM WORKER RIGHTS - of course, workers can negotiate and get BETTER rights to be included in their employment contracts > but if they fail, at least, they still are GUARANTEED in law to MINIMUM worker rights as provided for in Malaysian laws.
Comparatively in Singapore, basic minimum worker rights are enjoyed by the following workers
- A workman (doing manual labour) earning a basic monthly salary of not more than $4,500[RM14,173...].
- An employee who is not a workman, but who is covered by the Employment Act and earns a monthly basic salary of not more than $2,600[RM8,189].
$2,000 in 1955 is equivalent in purchasing power to about $21,172.84 today, an increase of $19,172.84 over 67 years.
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