OSHA 1994 employer duties after the 2022 amendment

Ask a Malaysian SME whether OSHA applies to it and the answer is usually no — that is a factory statute, and we run an office. That answer was defensible until 1 June 2024. It has been wrong ever since, and the duty most of those employers are now in breach of costs up to RM50,000: appointing a safety and health coordinator once you have five people.

What changed on 1 June 2024

The Occupational Safety and Health (Amendment) Act 2022 [Act A1648] brought the bulk of its provisions into force on 1 June 2024, including the rewritten First Schedule.

Section 1(2) now reads that the Act shall apply to all places of work throughout Malaysia including in the public services and statutory authorities, subject to subsection (3). Subsection (3) points at the First Schedule, which after the amendment contains exactly three non-applications:

1. Domestic employment, in relation to a person who employs another or is employed as a domestic servant within the meaning of the Employment Act 1955
2. The armed forces
3. Work on board ships governed by the Merchant Shipping Ordinance 1952, the Sabah Merchant Shipping Ordinance 1960 or the Sarawak Merchant Shipping Ordinance 1960

Everything else is in. Offices, clinics, shops, restaurants, warehouses, co-working spaces, professional firms, schools, government departments.

Section 2(2) reinforces the reach: where any other written law on occupational safety and health conflicts with OSHA, OSHA prevails and the conflicting provision is construed as superseded.

The duty most SMEs do not know exists

Section 29A(1). An employer whose place of work is not included in any class specified by the Minister under s.29(1) shall appoint one of his employees to act as an occupational safety and health coordinator if he employs five or more employees at his place of work.

Four features are worth pinning down:

• The threshold is five employees at the place of work, not five across the company.
• The coordinator must be one of the employer’s own employees. This is not an outsourced role.
• The purpose is defined narrowly by s.29A(2): coordinating occupational safety and health issues at the place of work.
• Section 29A(3) deems compliance where a safety and health officer has already been appointed at that place of work under s.29.

Section 29A(4) sets the penalty at a fine not exceeding RM50,000 or imprisonment not exceeding six months, or both.

The three headcount thresholds

Employees at the place of work	Duty	Provision	Penalty
1 or more	General duties, written policy, risk assessment	ss.15, 16, 18B	up to RM500,000 / 2 years (s.19)
5 or more	Appoint an OSH coordinator	s.29A	up to RM50,000 / 6 months
40 or more	Establish a safety and health committee	s.30	up to RM100,000 / 1 year

A safety and health officer under s.29 is a separate requirement, triggered not by headcount but by the Minister specifying a class or description of place of work by order in the Gazette. Where s.29 applies, the officer must be a competent person, is appointed exclusively for the safety role, and may serve only one place of work at a time unless the Director General permits otherwise.

The general duties, and the two new ones

Section 15(1) is the core obligation: to ensure, so far as is practicable, the safety, health and welfare at work of all employees. Section 15(2) lists the particulars — safe plant and systems of work; arrangements for the use, handling, storage and transport of plant and substances; information, instruction, training and supervision; safe premises with safe access and egress; a safe working environment with adequate welfare facilities; and procedures for dealing with emergencies.

Section 16 requires a written statement of general policy on safety and health, revised as often as appropriate, together with the organisation and arrangements for carrying it out, brought to the notice of all employees.

Section 17 extends duties to persons who are not employees. Section 18 covers occupiers of a place of work.

Two provisions inserted by the 2022 amendment change the picture for anyone who uses contractors:

Section 18A imposes duties on a principal in relation to contractors, subcontractors and persons working under the principal’s direction — including the allocation of sufficient time, budget and other resources, which is an unusual and pointed piece of drafting.

Section 18B requires every employer, self-employed person and principal to conduct a risk assessment of the safety and health risks posed by the undertaking, and to implement risk control where the assessment shows it is required. Section 18B(3) defines risk assessment as the process of evaluating risks arising from hazards at work and determining appropriate control measures.

Breach of any of ss.15 to 18B carries the s.19 penalty: a fine not exceeding RM500,000, or imprisonment not exceeding two years, or both.

Accident notification

Section 32(1) requires an employer to notify the nearest occupational safety and health office of any accident, dangerous occurrence, occupational poisoning or occupational disease which has occurred or is likely to occur at the place of work. Section 32(2) imposes a parallel duty on medical practitioners attending a patient believed to be suffering from a prescribed occupational disease or poisoning.

The section itself sets no period — the periods and forms are prescribed by the notification regulations made under the Act, which could not be retrieved from DOSH at the time of writing. Confirm the current period and form with your nearest DOSH office rather than relying on a figure repeated online.

Section 33 lets the Director General direct an inquiry, with assessors who have their own power to enter and inspect premises.

Common mistakes

Believing OSHA is limited to listed industries. That was the pre-2024 position and it is the single most common error in this area.

Outsourcing the coordinator role. Section 29A(1) says one of his employees.

Counting the threshold company-wide. Both s.29A and s.30 are drafted by reference to the place of work.

Treating a contractor’s safety as the contractor’s problem. Sections 17, 18A and 18B say otherwise, and s.18A(2)(b) expressly reaches budget and time allocation.

Skipping the written policy because the business is small. Section 16 applies except in such cases as may be prescribed, and the s.19 penalty is the largest in this article.

Assuming the old penalty figures. The 2022 amendment raised several tenfold or more — s.30 moved from RM5,000 to RM100,000, and s.19 to RM500,000.

What’s next

Count the people at each place of work today. At five or more, appoint the coordinator in writing and record the appointment; at forty or more, constitute the committee. Then document one risk assessment per place of work under s.18B, because that is the duty an inspector will ask to see first. For which regulator handles what, see the labour law map.