On 7 October 2024, the Johor Regent Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim announced that Johor will be reverting its weekend to Saturday and Sunday, from the current Friday and Saturday weekend. This change will take effect from 1 January 2025 onwards.
With this change to the work week, here are some practical issues that businesses in Johor should consider from an employment perspective:
- Change in rosters / work week. Employees should be given advance notice of any changes to the work week or rosters.
- Updating day off/ rest day policies. Relook at and update your employment contracts and company policies, especially if these documents expressly mentions that Friday and Saturday are day off / rest days. Existing EA requirements on working hours, shift work, overtime etc still apply.
- Overtime calculations in payroll system. Do ensure that payroll systems are updated to correctly reflect the change, otherwise there is a risk of your business inadvertently overpaying or underpaying overtime. For example, in a Monday-Friday work week, work done on a Saturday would attract a different overtime rate compared to if it were a Sunday-Thursday work week.
- Prayer time for male Muslims on Friday. With a Sunday-Thursday work week, there was no need to accommodate prayer time because Friday would have been a non-working day. With the shift to a Monday-Friday work week, this now becomes something to consider. It is not a legal requirement to provide longer lunch breaks for male Muslim employees to carry out their prayers on Friday. However, the Labour Department of Semenanjung Malaysia recommends a minimum of 1.5 hours for male Muslim employees to carry out their prayers on Fridays.
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This article was written by Leow Ho Eng (Associate) from Donovan & Ho’s employment law practice. Donovan & Ho is a law firm in Malaysia, and our employment practice group has built a reputation for providing strategic employment advice to local and global organisations. Our team of employment lawyers provide advice on employment law and industrial relations including review of employment contracts, policies and handbooks, advising on workforce reductions, and managing dismissals of employees for poor performance or misconduct. We also represent clients in unfair dismissal claims and employment-related litigation.
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