Maternity and Paternity Leave in Malaysia: 98 Days, 7 Days and Who Actually Qualifies

The two entitlements at a glance

98 days is calendar days, not working days

This is the most common payroll error. Section 37 says 98 consecutive days, so weekends, rest days and gazetted public holidays are all counted inside the period. Ninety-eight days is fourteen calendar weeks — roughly three and a quarter months — not ninety-eight shifts. An employer who rosters you back after 98 working days has kept you out an extra month and a half; an employee who assumes the count excludes weekends will plan a return date that is wrong in the other direction.

The leave may not start earlier than 30 days before the expected confinement, and may not start later than the day immediately after confinement. Within that window you choose. There is one override: if a registered medical practitioner certifies that you cannot perform your duties satisfactorily, the employer may require the leave to begin up to 14 days before the expected confinement.

Leave and allowance are separate rights

Every female employee gets the 98 days. Whether those days are paid depends on a second test in section 37(2): you must have been employed by that employer at some point in the four months immediately before confinement, and for at least 90 days in aggregate during the nine months immediately before confinement.

The 90 days need not be continuous — they are aggregated — which matters for employees who joined, left and rejoined, or who were on unpaid leave for part of the period. Fail the test and you keep the 98 days off but take them unpaid.

One restriction that the 2022 amendment did not remove: a female employee is not entitled to maternity allowance if, at the time of confinement, she already has five or more surviving children. Again, this bars only the pay. The 98 days of leave still stand.

Where the allowance is payable it is at your ordinary rate of pay for each day of the eligible period — the same daily rate used for annual leave, not a reduced or flat statutory figure.

The notice deadlines that quietly cost money

• Maternity: section 40 requires the employee to notify the employer of the confinement within 60 days before it is expected, stating when she intends to start leave. If she does not, the employer may withhold the allowance until she produces it — the leave is unaffected, but the pay can be suspended. Reasonable cause for late notice is an accepted excuse.
• Paternity: the married male employee must notify the employer of the spouse's pregnancy at least 30 days before the expected confinement, or as early as possible after the birth. Unlike the maternity rule, this notice is written into the entitlement itself.
• Paternity also carries a 12-month continuous service test with the same employer, measured immediately before the leave starts. An employee who changes jobs at month eight of a pregnancy will not qualify at the new employer.
• Put both notices in writing and keep the acknowledgement. In a dispute the paper trail is the whole case.

You cannot be dismissed for being pregnant

Section 41A prohibits terminating a female employee during her pregnancy, or while she is suffering from an illness arising out of the pregnancy, with only three exceptions: wilful breach of a condition of the contract, misconduct, or closure of the employer's business. The burden of proving that one of those applies sits on the employer, not on the employee.

Section 42 extends the protection past the leave itself. If a registered medical practitioner certifies that the employee remains unfit because of an illness arising from her pregnancy or confinement, she cannot be terminated for a further 90 days after the eligible period ends.

Failing to grant statutory leave, or dismissing in breach of these sections, is an offence. The Employment (Amendment) Act 2022 raised the general penalty under section 99A to a fine of up to RM50,000, five times the old RM10,000 ceiling — a deliberate signal that these are not soft obligations.

What still comes out of your pay

Paid maternity and paternity leave is ordinary wages, so nothing about your deductions changes while you are away. EPF employee and employer contributions continue on the allowance, SOCSO and EIS contributions continue, and PCB (MTD) is still deducted on the monthly figure.

That last point catches people out in the opposite direction. If part of your maternity leave is unpaid — because you failed the 90-day test, or because you extended beyond 98 days by agreement — your annual gross for the year falls, which usually means your PCB was over-deducted across the earlier months. That overpayment is not lost; it comes back as a refund when you file, or you can ask your employer to adjust the remaining months' PCB. The take-home calculator below is the quickest way to see the difference between a full year and a year with two unpaid months.

Traps and gaps worth knowing

• Malaysia has no statutory breastfeeding or lactation break. Nursing time on return is a matter of company policy or the tax-incentivised childcare provisions — not an entitlement under the Act.
• There is no statutory shared or transferable parental leave. The 98 days belong to the mother and the seven days to the father; neither can be reassigned.
• Annual leave does not stop accruing during paid maternity leave, and a public holiday falling inside the 98 days is not separately compensated — it is already inside the consecutive count.
• Returning employees can use sections 60P and 60Q to apply in writing for a flexible working arrangement covering hours, days or place of work. The employer must reply in writing within 60 days and give grounds if it refuses. It is a right to be answered, not a right to be approved — but a refusal without stated grounds is itself a breach.
• The Employment Act 1955 covers Peninsular Malaysia and Labuan. Sabah and Sarawak employees are governed by their own Labour Ordinances, which have been amended separately — confirm the figures against the Ordinance that applies to you before relying on them.
• Your contract may improve on these numbers but can never fall below them. A clause offering 60 days of maternity leave is void to the extent of the shortfall and the statutory 98 days applies instead.