SMEs’ Knowledge of Legislated Employment Rights: Malaysian Perspective

Abstract

This study seeks to investigate small and medium-sized enterprise Human Resource (HR) practitioners’ knowledge pertaining to legislated employment rights at the workplace as laid down by the Employment Act (EA) 1955. The EA provides a variety of individual employment rights covering protections of wages, statutory right to the general standard of working time, statutory right to rest day, public holidays, annual leave and sick leave, statutory right to employment security as well as female employee’s statutory right to paid maternity leave. The study also aims to determine whether HR practitioners’ level of knowledge concerning legislated employment rights differed significantly between age groups, years of experience, level of education and size of company. It also examined the nature of the relationship between the HR practitioners’ level of basic knowledge concerning legislated employment rights and their level of concern in making legally sound decisions in their administrative practice. In addition, it identified whether the HR practitioners’ level of basic knowledge pertaining to legislated employment rights correlate significantly with the size of the company where they are employed.