REGULATIONS ON PART-TIME EMPLOYMENT TO BE ENFORCED IN MARCH

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 28 (Bernama) -- Regulations governing part-time work for
private-sector workers are expected to come into effect in March.

Human Resources Minister Dr S.Subramaniam said his ministry was in
the midst of finalising the regulations under the Employment Act 1955.

"We are just waiting for a small change before we can gazette it within the
next one or two months," he told reporters after delivering a keynote address at
the Employment Law Conference 2010 here Wednesday.

He said that with such regulations, employers and employees would have a
clear idea of their rights and responsibilities towards each other.

"Even though some people do work part-time, they don't have legal support
for them to work. Through these part-time regulations, it would be legal so that
employers need not to worry," he said.

He also said that the regulations were designed to encourage more
Malaysians, especially the latent workforce, to be employed and at the same time
reduce dependency on foreign workers.


Dr Subramaniam said there were about 6.5 million latent workforce in the
country, including housewives, the elderly, disabled and students who were
educated but could not find better jobs.

He said that among the issues to be covered by the regulations were
contributions to the Employees Provident Fund (EPF), Social Security
Organisation (Socso), overtime work and medical leave.

"I hope the industries will take this seriously because they can create jobs
for people who don't want to work for eight hours, for example, those who want
to work four or five hours. And this also provides opportunities to create a new
concept in employment."

He said the ministry would also propose a special
High Court dedicated to hear industrial relations cases and resolve them faster,
compared with the current long waiting period.

-- BERNAMA