In his keynote address at the 2024 National Youth Day celebration on 25 May 2024, the Prime Minister of Malaysia, Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim, announced that the Gig Workers Commission Bill will be tabled in July 2024 at the next meeting of the Malaysian Parliament.
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The proposed Bill, first announced during the 2024 Bumiputera Economic Congress from 29 February to 2 March 2024, will establish a Commission to prioritise social protection, resolution of contract disputes and career advancement of gig workers in Malaysia, which is estimated to comprise around 1.12 million workers.
The Second Meeting of the Third Session of the Fifteenth Parliament is scheduled to be held from 24 June 2024 to 1 August 2024, with the Dewan Rakyat (
House of Representatives) meeting from 24 June 2024 to 18 July 2024 and the Dewan Negara (
Senate) meeting from 22 July 2024 to 1 August 2024.
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As gig workers in Malaysia are considered as self-employed persons, they are not entitled to employee benefits and protection and are left to fend for themselves in terms of contributions to the statutory retirement fund and to the statutory social security fund for protection against injury caused by accident or occupational disease in the course of work. It will be interesting to see whether the Bill will address these issues to improve the position of gig workers in Malaysia.
Alert by Foo Siew Li (Partner) of the Employment Law Practice of Skrine.