Can You Skip Your Notice Period When Resigning in Malaysia?

Disclaimer: This article should not be considered to be legal advice, and altHR is not liable for any actions taken based on this article.‍

Almost every employer and employee has gone through the process of resignation at some point of their careers — it’s a part of work life, and one that requires a certain amount of tact and understanding. As employers, you don’t want to stand in the way of someone’s personal goals and trajectory; employees also need to consider the impact of their departures on the business and the rest of the organisation. 

This is essentially the reason why almost every employment contract comes with a stipulated notice period. However, many employees often wonder: is there a legal way to skip the notice period when resigning in Malaysia? 

How long is the notice period in Malaysia?

In Malaysia, the Employment Act 1955 provides that the length of notice given (by both employee or employer) will be determined by the agreed upon terms in your employment contract. However, if your contract does not specify a notice period, you can refer to the EA for the minimum (calculated from the date of resignation): 

• 4 weeks if the employee has been so employed for less than 2 years‍
• 6 weeks if employed for at least 2 years but less than 5 years‍
• 8 weeks if employed for at least 5 years

You should also note that the Employment Act only applies to West Malaysia, including the following categories of employees: 

• Employees who have entered into a contract of service with monthly wages of RM2,000 or less
• Employees who — regardless of monthly wage — are engaged in manual labour
• Domestic servants
• And other categories of employees within the First Schedule of the EA 1955

If you’re planning to resign, be sure to look through your employment contract first. In fact, you should always be aware of the notice period of your employment contract, ideally before you actually join the company. 

So, how do you legally skip your notice period?

If you’re looking to shorten — or even skip — your notice period at your present employers, the first thing you should do is negotiate with your employers or HR department. This is the easiest and most amicable way to work out a suitable time frame for your departure, one that allows for a complete handover of tasks, while possibly accommodating an earlier departure. 

Additionally, you can also use any remaining balance of annual leave to offset your notice period. Granted, most of you won’t have enough days to actually skip your entire notice period, but it should help to bring forward your departure date. However, this isn’t an automatic thing — your employers still have the option of rejecting your annual leave — and you might receive payment in replacement of your annual leave days instead (click here for more details on unused annual leave).

But if you must leave at an earlier date, there is a final resort available to you: buying out your notice period. This is a costly option, but one that is available in most employment contracts (and the Employment Act) is the option of buying out your notice period. This means that if you have a notice period of 3 months, you can choose to shorten (or even skip) your notice period by making a payment equivalent to your monthly income from the company. 

Be sure to look out for the notice clause in your employee contract, and it should mention that you must serve notice of up to X months, or payment in lieu of notice. You might not need to pay this yourself, however, as your future employers might choose to bear this cost if they need you to join the team sooner than your notice period would allow.