# Paternity leave in Malaysia

> Seven consecutive paid days per confinement under s.60FA, the two qualifying conditions, and the cap of five confinements irrespective of the number of spouses.

- Category: employment
- Language: en
- Status: published
- Updated: 2026-07-20
- Canonical: https://negaraku.md/en/employment/paternity-leave-malaysia

---

Paternity leave entered the Employment Act 1955 on 1 January 2023 as a single short
section, and almost every summary of it stops at "seven days". The conditions attached
to those seven days are where employers actually get it wrong, because two of them are
met — or missed — long before the baby arrives.

## The entitlement

Section 60FA(1): *a married male employee shall be entitled to a paid paternity leave at
his ordinary rate of pay for a period of **seven consecutive days** in respect of each
confinement.*

Three words carry weight.

**Married.** The section is expressly limited to a married male employee. The Act does
not extend it to unmarried fathers, and s.7A permits an employer to be more generous by
contract if it chooses.

**Consecutive.** Not seven working days to be taken as convenient. The section describes
one continuous block per confinement.

**Ordinary rate of pay.** As defined by s.60I — for a monthly-rated employee, the monthly
rate divided by 26.

## The cap

Section 60FA(2) restricts the leave to **five confinements irrespective of the number of
spouses**. The counter follows the employee, not the marriage. A man with two wives does
not get five confinements each; he gets five in total.

## The two conditions

Section 60FA(3) makes the entitlement conditional on **both** of the following:

| Condition | Provision |
| --- | --- |
| Employment by **the same employer for at least twelve months** immediately before the paternity leave commences | s.60FA(3)(a) |
| Notification to the employer of the spouse's pregnancy **at least thirty days from the expected confinement**, or **as early as possible after the birth** | s.60FA(3)(b) |

The service condition is the one that bites. A father who joins the company in March and
whose child is born the following January does not qualify under the Act, however
sympathetic the case.

The notification condition is drafted with an alternative limb, so a premature or
unexpectedly early birth does not defeat the entitlement — the employee must simply
notify as early as possible after it.

## Who is covered

Everyone under a contract of service, subject to one real exclusion. First Schedule
paragraph 1 covers any person who has entered into a contract of service, and s.60FA is
**not** among the six provisions disapplied above RM4,000 a month by paragraph 1A. A
director-level employee on RM25,000 a month has the same seven days as a production
operator.

The exclusion is **domestic employees**: First Schedule paragraph 2(5) disapplies s.60FA,
along with ss.60E, 60F and Parts IX and XIIA, to them.

Sabah and Sarawak are governed by their own Labour Ordinances rather than by Act 265, and
the 2025 amending Acts do not map section-for-section onto the Employment Act. Check the
applicable Ordinance for East Malaysian staff.

## Common mistakes

**Reading the seven days as working days.** The section says consecutive days.

**Applying the cap per marriage.** It is five confinements irrespective of the number of
spouses.

**Ignoring the twelve-month condition and then withdrawing the leave.** Decide
eligibility when the notification arrives, not after the leave is taken.

**Treating the notification as optional.** It is a statutory condition of entitlement,
not an administrative courtesy — although the second limb protects an early birth.

**Assuming the RM4,000 threshold removes it.** Paragraph 1A is a closed list of six
provisions and s.60FA is not one of them.

## What's next

Add a paternity-leave field to your leave system that records the confinement count
rather than only the days taken, so the five-confinement cap can be applied without
reconstructing history. The corresponding entitlement and the pregnancy-termination
protections are set out in [maternity leave](/en/employment/maternity-leave-malaysia).

## Sources

- Employment Act 1955 (Act 265), updated text as at 1 January 2023 — https://jtksm.mohr.gov.my/sites/default/files/2023-11/Akta%20Kerja%201955%20(Akta%20265)_0.pdf (Jabatan Tenaga Kerja Semenanjung Malaysia)

---
Source of truth: https://github.com/negaraku-md/NegaraKu.md
License: CC BY-SA 4.0