The Occupational Safety and Health (Amendment) Act 2022 (Act A1648) amends Malaysia’s principal workplace safety law, the Occupational Safety and Health Act 1994 (Act 514). It received royal assent on 4 March 2022 and was gazetted on 16 March 2022, and came into operation on 1 June 2024. The amendments extend the law to nearly all workplaces, create new duties for principals and employers, introduce formal registration regimes for safety specialists and inspection bodies, and sharply raise penalties — in some cases from RM50,000 to RM500,000.
Section 1(2), as amended, extends OSHA 1994 to “all places of work throughout Malaysia including in the public services and statutory authorities.” The only exclusions, listed in the newly substituted First Schedule, are domestic employment (as defined under the Employment Act 1955), the armed forces, and work aboard ships governed by Malaysia’s three merchant shipping ordinances. Previously, OSHA 1994 only applied to 10 named industries — this is a major expansion.
Yes. New Section 18B requires every employer, self-employed person, or principal to carry out a risk assessment covering the safety and health risks posed to anyone who may be affected by their undertaking at the place of work, and to implement risk controls where the assessment shows they’re needed. The Act doesn’t set a fixed review interval, but since the assessment must reflect the hazards actually present at the place of work, it should be revisited whenever work processes, plant or hazards change.
A “principal” is anyone who, in the course of their trade, business, profession or undertaking, contracts with a contractor to carry out all or part of work the principal has undertaken. New Section 18A makes principals responsible, so far as practicable, for the safety and health of contractors, subcontractors and indirect subcontractors they engage, and their employees, whenever those people are working under the principal’s direction. Required measures include safe plant and systems of work; sufficient time, budget and resources allocated for safety; information, instruction, training and supervision; a place of work maintained safely with safe access and egress; a safe working environment; and emergency procedures. Principals also owe a duty to other people who might be affected by their undertaking, even if not directly engaged by them.
If you employ five or more people and your workplace isn’t in a class already required to have a dedicated safety and health officer under Section 29, yes. New Section 29A requires you to appoint one of your own employees as an occupational safety and health coordinator to handle OSH matters at the workplace. If you’ve already appointed a safety and health officer, you’re deemed to have complied. Failing to appoint a coordinator carries a fine of up to RM50,000, imprisonment of up to six months, or both.
The Act creates a formal registration regime for safety specialists. Under new Part VIIA, seven categories of safety-critical work — set out in the new Fifth Schedule — can only be carried out by someone registered with DOSH as a “competent person.” These include fabricating, installing or testing plant; operating or being in charge of plant; medical surveillance and health examinations; chemical health risk assessments; indoor air quality assessments; workplace monitoring such as noise or chemical exposure; and OSH training, assessment or examination. Registration runs for three years and is renewable; carrying out this work unregistered is an offence carrying a fine of up to RM100,000. OSH training courses themselves may now only be run by a “registered training provider” under new Section 31A.
New Sections 7A to 7D let the Minister license private persons or companies to inspect certain prescribed plant and issue certificates of fitness — work that would otherwise fall to DOSH officers. Licensed persons can charge fees for this service, remain subject to DOSH oversight, and can have their licence revoked for breaches. Falsely representing yourself as a licensed person is an offence carrying a fine of up to RM200,000, imprisonment of up to two years, or both.
New Part VIA introduces a formal notification and certification regime. Section 27A requires anyone occupying or using a place of work for prescribed activities to notify a DOSH officer. Certain “prescribed plant” cannot be installed without the Director General’s written approval, and cannot be operated without a valid certificate of fitness issued after inspection. Plant is also subject to periodical inspection, or, on application, an approved special inspection scheme. Non-compliance carries fines typically up to RM100,000, rising to RM500,000 for operating plant despite a prohibition notice.
Yes. New Section 26A lets an employee remove themselves from a task or location if they reasonably believe there is “imminent danger” — a serious risk of death or serious bodily injury from any plant, substance, condition, activity, process, practice, procedure or workplace hazard — provided they’ve first informed their employer and the employer hasn’t acted. Employees who do this are protected against discrimination or other undue consequences.
The new Fourth Schedule sets out a specific list, including loss of an eye or hearing in either ear, loss or permanent impairment of a limb or joint, permanent disfigurement of the head or face, fractures or dislocations, amputations, crush injuries to the head or torso, burns covering more than 10% of the body or causing serious damage to the eyes or airways, loss of consciousness from head injury or asphyxia, electrical injury, and any work injury requiring hospital admission for more than 24 hours. This list matters because it defines the threshold used for “imminent danger” under Section 26A.
Substantially, across the board. Breaches of the core employer, self-employed person and principal duties (Sections 15 to 18B) now carry fines of up to RM500,000, up from RM50,000. Breaches by manufacturers, designers, importers or suppliers of plant and substances rose from RM20,000 to RM200,000. Victimising an employee for raising safety concerns rose from RM10,000 to RM100,000. Failing to appoint a required safety and health officer rose from RM5,000 to RM100,000, with the jail term extended from six months to one year. New offences under the licensing and plant-notification regimes carry fines ranging from RM100,000 to RM500,000, and regulations made under the Act can now themselves carry penalties of up to RM500,000 or two years’ imprisonment.
Yes. The substituted Section 52 lets DOSH charge a director, compliance officer, partner, manager, secretary or other officer responsible for management jointly or severally with the company. If the company is convicted, that individual is deemed guilty too and faces the same penalty — unless they can prove the offence happened without their knowledge, consent or connivance, and that they took all reasonable precautions and exercised due diligence to prevent it. A separate new Section 52A extends the same liability logic to a person for the acts of their own employees or agents.
Conduct and document a formal risk assessment; appoint an OSH coordinator if you have five or more staff and don’t already need a safety and health officer; check whether any of your safety-critical work now falls under the Fifth Schedule and must be handled by a registered competent person; review your obligations toward contractors and subcontractors if you engage them as a principal; and confirm whether any of your plant needs DOSH notification, installation approval, or a certificate of fitness.
Laws of Malaysia, Act A1648 — Occupational Safety and Health (Amendment) Act 2022 (an Act to amend the Occupational Safety and Health Act 1994 [Act 514]). Royal Assent: 4 March 2022. Gazetted: 16 March 2022. All section references above are to this Act.
Laws of Malaysia, Act 514 — Occupational Safety and Health Act 1994, Reprint (updated text as at 1 June 2024), Attorney General’s Chambers of Malaysia, which confirms Act A1648 came into operation on 1 June 2024.