What public holidays are stipulated by the government?

Section 60D (1) of the Employment Act 1955 provides that every employee shall be entitled to a paid holiday at his ordinary rate of pay on the following days in any one calendar year:

(a) on eleven of the gazetted public holidays, five of which shall be-

(i) the National Day;

(ii) the Birthday of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong;

(iii) the Birthday of the Ruler or the Yang di-Pertua Negeri, as the case may be, of the State in which the employee wholly or mainly works under his contract of service, or the Federal Territory Day, if the employee wholly or mainly works in the Federal Territory;

(iv) the Workers' Day; and

(v) Malaysia Day; and

(b) on any day appointed as a public holiday for that particular year under section 8 of the Holidays Act 1951 [Act 369].

Section 60D (3) (a) states that any employee may be required by his employer to work on any paid holiday to which he is entitled under the said subsections and in such event he shall, in addition to the holiday pay he is entitled to for that day be paid two days' wages at the ordinary rate of pay if the employee is employed on a monthly rate of pay. This is regardless of the number of hours the employee worked up to the normal hours of work.

For any overtime work carried out by an employee in excess of the normal hours of work on a paid public holiday, the employee shall be paid at a rate which is not less than three times his hourly rate of pay.