Starting Point of an Employment Relation

1. Expatriate employment contract (this is for hiring of international employee to work in Malaysia);
2. Senior position employment contract (manager, senior manager and director);
3. Employees within the scope of Employment Act 1955 (‘EA 1955’)

• Wages
• Notice of termination of contract
• Working hours
• Public holiday
• Annual leave
• Sick leave
• Overtime payment
• Not to restrict rights of employees to join, participate in or organizing trade unions

• Confidentiality
• Incorporation of Employee Handbook
• Right of Transfer
• Medical Examination
• Vaccine inoculation
• Bonus
• Conflict of interest

Generally, Companies may wish to use one template for all types of employment. However, there are risks associated to it, for example the terms and conditions imposed on expatriate and foreign employees may be different due to the prevailing immigration law, higher duties and responsibilities imposed on senior ranking employees which are not applicable to junior employees.

Our Penang Employment Lawyer Team has vast experience in preparing or reviewing Employee Handbooks and various employment policies. We ensure that the Employee Handbook and various employment policies shall conform with the applicable laws and regulations, as well as the special needs of the employers.

Employee Handbook could help to set out what are the general expectations of the business toward its employees.

Employee Handbook can also regulate the activities and behaviour which are prohibited by the business and consequences of such breaches by employees.

Employee Handbook supplements the employment contract. As Employees Handbook generally lists down a string of minor and major misconduct which are not allowed in the business, it reduces the need to include such clauses into the employment contract and making the employment contract lengthier than is necessary.

Various policies are needed to set out the specific and detailed rules and guidelines on different areas of employment such as: –

• Intellectual Property and Right to Invention during Employment
• Non-solicitation policy
• Anti-corruption policy
• Drug and alcohol free workplace
• Confidentiality and non-disclosure policy
• Social Media Policy
• Covid-19 Vaccination Policy

By having Employee Handbook and policies setting out clearly the dos and don’ts in different areas of employment, it will enable the employees to know the boundaries set by the employers and at the same the employers have definite rules to deal with employee who broke them. This will avoid ambiguous situation where the employee may be wrong but the employer has no specific policy to regulate such situation.