WEEKLY HOLIDAYS ACT 1950

LAWS OF MALAYSIA ONLINE VERSION OF UPDATED TEXT OF REPRINT Act 220 WEEKLY HOLIDAYS ACT 1950 As at 1 May 2015 2 WEEKLY HOLIDAYS ACT 1950 First enacted … … … … … 1950 (Ordinance No. 47 of 1950) … … … … … 1979 (Act 220 w.e.f. 15 June 1979) Latest amendment made by Act 160 which came into operation on … … … Revised 29 August 1975 PREVIOUS REPRINTS First Reprint… ... ... ... 2001 Second Reprint ... ... ... 2006 3 LAWS OF MALAYSIA Act 220 WEEKLY HOLIDAYS ACT 1950 ARRANGEMENT OF SECTIONS Section 1. Short title and application 2. Interpretation 3. Closing of shops 4. Provisions relating to shops where more than one business is carried on 5. Additional half-day closing or holiday 6. Weekly holidays in shops, restaurants and theatres 7. Shops to be closed on five additional days every year 8. No deduction or abatement to be made from wages 9. Administration of Act 10. Powers of Inspectors 11. Penalties 12. Exemption from application of this Act 13. Power to exempt 14. Rules SCHEDULE 5 LAWS OF MALAYSIA Act 220 WEEKLY HOLIDAYS ACT 1950 An Act to provide for a weekly holiday for persons employed in shops, restaurants and theatres. [1 October 1951, L.N. 78/1951] Short title and application 1. (1) (2) This Act may be cited as the Weekly Holidays Act 1950. This Act shall apply to Peninsular Malaysia only. Interpretation 2. In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires– “controlled business” means any one or more of the following trades or businesses, namely, any retail trade or business (including retail sales by auction but not including the sale of programmes and catalogues and other similar sales at theatres and places of amusement), the sale of intoxicating liquor under licence, the business of a pawnbroker, barber, hairdresser, tailor, laundryman, dry-cleaner and dyer and any wholesale business declared by the Minister, by notification in the Gazette, to be a controlled business for the purposes of this Act; “day” means a period of twenty-four hours beginning at midnight; “Director General” means the Director General of Labour; “manager” means any person appointed to be in charge of or to manage a shop, theatre or restaurant; 6 Laws of Malaysia ACT 220 “Peninsular Malaysia” has the meaning assigned thereto in section 3 of the Interpretation Acts 1948 and 1967 [Act 388], and includes the Federal Territory; “proprietor” means the owner of the controlled business in any shop or the licensee of any theatre or restaurant; “restaurant” means any premises in which is carried on principally or wholly the business of supplying meals or refreshments to the public or a class of the public for consumption on the premises; “shop” means all directly inter-connected premises or contiguous places used by any person for– (a) exposing goods for sale as part of any controlled business carried on by him; (b) the storage, preparation, processing or manufacture of goods, some or all of which are ordinarily disposed of in the course of any controlled business carried on by him; or (c) any other purpose of a controlled business carried on by him, or, where part only of any premises or places are so used, means that part: Provided that the term “shop” shall not include a restaurant or any bazaar for charitable or public purposes, or any separate room or workshop used exclusively for the storage, preparation, processing or manufacture of goods which are of a description ordinarily disposed of in a substantial quantities otherwise than as part of the business of a controlled business; “theatre” includes any premises intended principally or wholly for the presentation of moving pictures, dramatic performances or stage entertainment or for use as a dance hall; “unassisted shop” means any shop in which the controlled business is carried on by the sole proprietor without assistance other than that of the husband, wife or one of the children of the proprietor; Weekly Holidays 7 “week” means the period between midnight on any Saturday night and midnight on the succeeding Saturday night. Closing of shops 3. (1) Every shop not included in any class of shops mentioned in the Schedule shall remain entirely closed on either Friday or Sunday, as the proprietor or manager may choose, in each week, and every person employed therein shall be given a whole holiday on such day: Provided that– (a) an unassisted shop may remain open on both Friday and Sunday in each week on condition that on either Friday or Sunday in each week only the proprietor shall attend to the customers; (b) the Director General may, upon application being made to him in that behalf, in the manner prescribed, by the proprietor or the manager, give written permission in the case of any shop for some other day to be substituted in any particular week for the day chosen by such proprietor or manager and this subsection shall thereupon apply in the case of that shop to such day accordingly and not to the day of that week chosen; and (c) the Director General may, upon application being made to him in that behalf by the proprietor or manager, give written permission that in any particular week a specified piece of work be performed in any shop on the day on which that shop, in accordance with this subsection, would otherwise be entirely closed; and the Director General shall, if he gives such written permission, specify a day in that particular week or in the week next following on which all persons to be employed in such specified piece of work shall be given a whole holiday in lieu of the whole holiday which they would otherwise have been given under this subsection. (2) The proprietor or the manager shall specify in a notice, in such form as may be prescribed, the day in each week on which a 8 Laws of Malaysia ACT 220 shop is closed in pursuance of subsection (1) and shall exhibit such notice permanently in a conspicuous place in the shop. (3) The day chosen by the proprietor or manager in accordance with subsection (1) shall not be altered by the proprietor or manager more often than once in six months. (4) The proprietor of an unassisted shop shall specify in such notice as may be prescribed the day in each week on which he only will attend to customers as provided for in proviso of paragraph 1(a), and shall exhibit such notice permanently in a conspicuous place in such unassisted shop. (5) The Minister may from time to time, by notification in the Gazette add to, alter or amend the Schedule. Provisions relating to shops where more than one business is carried on 4. Where several trades or businesses are carried on in the same shop, and any of those trades or businesses is of such a nature that if it were the only trade or business carried on in the shop, the shop would be exempt from the provisions of section 3, the exemption shall apply to the shop so far as the carrying on of that trade or business is concerned, subject, however, to such conditions as may be prescribed. Additional half-day closing or holiday 5. (1) The Minister may, by notification in the Gazette, require in respect of all shops or of any specified class of shops other than unassisted shops and shops included in any class of shops mentioned in the Schedule that they should be closed at such hour in the afternoon of one day in every week in addition to the day provided for by section 3, as may be specified in such notification. (2) When any shop is closed under subsection (1) every person employed therein shall be given a holiday, in addition to any holiday given under section 3, 6 or 7, during such period as the shop is closed. Weekly Holidays 9 (3) The Minister may, for the purposes of this section, specify different hours or days for different shops or different classes of shops or for different areas or for different times of the year. (4) The proprietor or the manager shall specify in a notice, in such form as may be prescribed, the day in each week on which a shop is closed in pursuance of a requirement under subsection (1) and shall exhibit such notice permanently in a conspicuous place in the shop. Weekly holidays in shops, restaurants and theatres 6. (1) Every person employed in any shop, other than an unassisted shop, in a class of shops mentioned in the Schedule, or in any restaurant or theatre shall be given in each week a holiday of one whole day: Provided that nothing in this section shall apply to any person who works on less than six days and for less than forty hours in the week, such person being deemed to have worked on any day on which he has worked for a total period of not less than four hours. (2) The Director General may, by notification in the Gazette, exclude any particular class of employee from the operation of subsection (1). Shops to be closed on five additional days every year 7. (1) In addition to those other holidays prescribed by this Act, every shop, other than an unassisted shop or a shop included in any class of shops mentioned in the Schedule, shall be entirely closed on not less than five days every year, to be chosen by the proprietor or manager, and every person employed in any such shop shall be given a whole holiday on each such day. (2) The proprietor or the manager shall specify in a notice, in such form as may be prescribed, the days chosen in accordance with subsection (1) and shall exhibit such notice permanently in a conspicuous place in the shop. 10 Laws of Malaysia ACT 220 (3) In addition to the holidays required to be given by subsection 6(1) every person employed in a shop of a class mentioned in the Schedule or in any restaurant or theatre shall be given in every year a whole holiday on five other days to be chosen by the proprietor or manager. (4) If in any year any of the days chosen by the proprietor or manager in compliance with subsection (1) is a day on which his shop is required to be entirely closed under section 3 then the day next following on which the shop would otherwise be opened shall be deemed to be a day chosen in compliance with subsection (1) and the shop shall be entirely closed on that day. No deduction or abatement to be made from wages 8. (1) No deductions or abatement of the wages of any person shall be made on account of any holiday given under section 3, 6 or 7. (2) A person who is given a holiday under section 5 shall be paid in respect of such holiday the wages he would have earned had he worked during that part of the day in which such holiday is given. Administration of Act 9. (1) The Director General shall be the officer in charge of the general administration of this Act. (2) The Director General may either generally or specifically direct any State Director of Labour or Assistant State Director of Labour or, with the consent of the Minister, any other public officer to exercise, perform or discharge any power, duty or function of the Director General under this Act or under any regulation made thereunder. (3) The Yang di-Pertuan Agong may, by notification in the Gazette, appoint persons to be Inspectors for the purposes of this Act within such local limits as he may assign. Weekly Holidays 11 (4) Every Inspector appointed under this section shall be deemed to be a public servant within the meaning of the Penal Code [Act 574]. (5) The Director General and any State Director of Labour or Assistant State Director of Labour may exercise any or all of the powers of an Inspector. Powers of Inspectors 10. (1) Subject to any rules made under this Act by the Minister, an Inspector may at any reasonable time, within the local limits for which he is appointed– (a) enter and remain in any shop, theatre or restaurant to which this Act applies and in any quarter, house or other accommodation where persons who are employed in such premises live or sleep; (b) make such examination of any such shop, restaurant, theatre, quarter, house or other accommodation and of any record, register or notice maintained therein, i