Employers asked to allow workers to vote

KUALA LUMPUR: Employers are asked to allow their workers to exercise their right to vote in the 14th General Election (GE14) on May 9 which falls on Wednesday, said Human Resources Minister Datuk Seri Richard Riot.

“Employers must allow their workers (to go out and vote). They must be given the opportunity,” he said when contacted by Bernama here yesterday. This is in line with the provisions of the Election Offences Act 1954 that required employers to allow their employees a reasonable period for voting.

Commenting on the polling date, Riot said the EC would have had its own reasons to choose that date.

Riot in a statement urged private sector employers to take measures such as giving time off to employees who had to go to polling stations near their workplace and give a day off to those who had to travel far from the workplace to vote.

“Employees who need more than one day to travel to the polling stations can take annual leave,” he said.

He said employers were also not allowed to penalise their workers by deducting their salaries for absence from work during the period they had gone to vote.

“Failure to do so, employers could be prosecuted under Section 25(1) of the Election Offences Act 1954 and fined up to RM5,000 or sentenced up to one year in jail upon conviction,” he said. — Bernama