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EMPLOYERS are legally required to facilitate registered voter employees to cast their votes for the 15th general election. For employers who observe Saturday, November 19, 2022, as an off day or a rest day, the employees who are registered voters are free to exercise their rights as voters on the polling day and there is no requirement for such employers to provide additional time off.
On the other hand, for employers who observe November 19 as a working day or have a rota/shift system in place, the company must grant reasonable paid time-off to registered voter employees to cast their ballot on the polling day.
Polling booths will generally open from 8am to 5.30pm.
There should be no time constraint as far as the conventional shift employees are concerned. Such registered voter employees, whether rostered on the first shift (7am-3pm) or on the second shift (3pm-11pm) or on the third shift (11pm-7am), should experience little difficulty in fulfilling their obligations to vote outside their normal shift hours periods without seeking any paid time-off from work.
In places where the polling booths close earlier than 5.30pm, first-shift employees who are registered voters must be given reasonable paid time-off to cast their votes on the polling day.
There may be instances where registered voter employees are on a 12-hour shift. Such employees working on the night shift would be able to cast their votes during the time allocated and no paid time-off should be given.
Employees who are registered voters and scheduled to work during the day on a 12-hour shift should be given reasonable time-off to cast their votes.
As polling booths will generally close at 5.30pm, office and factory employees who are registered voters and observing standard working hours – 9am to 5pm or 8.30am to 4.30pm – may be hard-pressed to get to their voting stations in time to cast their ballots, bearing in mind travelling time, weather and other factors.
In such circumstances, employers may consider any one or a combination of the following arrangements for the convenience of their employees who are registered voters to cast their votes:
a) Allow them to report for work, say, two hours late;
b) Grant them a two-hour extension of their lunch break; or
c) Release them, say, two hours earlier.
There may be occasions where an employee who is a registered voter needs to cast his/her vote at an outstation polling centre, and November 19 is a normal working day for the said employee. It is then reasonable for the company to require the employee to apply for annual leave/unpaid leave for the said purpose.
Under the Election Offences Act 1954, employers are obliged to allow their employees who are registered voters a reasonable period of paid time-off for voting. The relevant provisions of Section 25 of the Election Offences Act 1954 are as follows:
Section 25: Employers to allow employees reasonable period for voting:
(1) Every employer shall, on polling day, allow to every elector in his employ a reasonable period for voting, and no employer shall make any deduction from the pay or other remuneration of any such elector or impose upon or exact from him any penalty by reason of his absence during such period.
(2) This section shall extend to employees of the successor company as defined in section 2 of the Railways (Successor Company) Act 1991 [Act 464] and the Sabah Railway except such as are actually engaged in the running of trains and to whom such time cannot be allowed without interfering with the manning of the trains; and the General Manager, shall, in each case, be deemed to be the employer of such employees.
(3) Any employer who, directly or indirectly, refuses, or by intimidation, undue influence, or in any other manner, interferes with the granting to any elector in his employ, of a reasonable period for voting, as in this section provided, shall on summary conviction be liable to a fine of five thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for one year.
(4) This section shall not extend to such categories of employees as the Election Commission may from time to time by notification in the Gazette designate.
(5) This section shall be binding on the Government of Malaysia and the Government of each State.
(6) In this section, “employer” has the same meaning as in the Employment Act 1955 [Act 265].
The above is, in our view, a fair and reasonable construction of the obligations imposed on employers to ensure that all their employees who are registered voters are afforded a reasonable opportunity to vote.
The above are, however, intended only as guidelines and companies are at liberty to make such other “ad hoc” arrangements, as they may deem appropriate to deal with individual cases in the context of their operational requirements.
For registered voter employees who need to cast their votes via postal votes on November 15, reasonable time-off should be granted to employees that work on this date to enable them to cast their postal votes.
In applying for and granting paid time-off, reasonableness is to be expected from both the employers and the employees who are registered voters to cast their votes during the 15th general election. – The Vibes, October 21, 2022
The Malaysian Employers Federation is the central organisation of private sector employers in the country. This statement was issued by MEF president Datuk Syed Hussain Syed Husman.
