Employment rights during the COVID-19 pandemic: a legal analysis

Abstract

COVID-19 has created chaos in most parts of the world. Actions taken to curb the spread of the COVID-19 in the community such as movement restriction order by the government have given a negative impact to the nation’s economy. In order to survive this pandemic, employers have taken various measures to sustain the business and unfortunately employees are deeply affected by these measures. As a consequence, employees are deprived of their rights at the workplace. This paper examines rights of employees under the Employment Act 1955 which involves discussion on issues such as deduction of wages, leave utilisation, and retrenchment of employee in Malaysia during the COVID-19 pandemic period. This is a qualitative research where analysis is made through secondary sources such as article journals, books, government directives, websites and government statutes. Besides that, court cases studies are employed to reach the objective of this research. Finally, this article provides suggestions to improve the mechanism in protecting the employment rights at the workplace in order to maintain a harmonious relationship between employers and employees despite going through difficult times.