Dewan Negara Passes Gig Workers’ Bill 2025

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 9 (Bernama) — Dewan Negara today passed the Gig Workers’ Bill 2025, which will protect over 1.2 million gig workers in Malaysia, ensuring their welfare, social security and rights as a vital part of the country’s workforce after a debate involving 18 Dewan Negara members.

Human Resources Minister Steven Sim Chee Keong said the bill would tackle weaknesses in existing Acts, specifically in enforcement by introducing automatic deductions through Application Programming Interface (API) with platforms.

“Gig workers in e-hailing and p-hailing sectors are supposed to contribute to PERKESO (Social Security Organisation). Through this new provision, the contributions will be automatically deducted at a rate of 1.25 per cent from income after commissions and tips are deducted.

“In other words, about only one sen is deducted for every RM1. This is more practical than the current method where they need to pay a lump sum for the self protection package ranging from RM157.20 to RM592.80 annually,” he said when winding up the debate on the bill today.

He also noted the difference between the current prepaid model where workers need to pay beforehand to secure coverage and that the new bill would use the pre-postpaid method where coverage is provided even before payments are made, pointing out that it would hugely benefit gig workers.

While Sim admitted there were differences of opinion regarding the bill, he stressed that his ministry had also met the public firsthand to obtain feedback from all parties and improved the draft to produce the best version acknowledged by stakeholders.

The bill contains 112 clauses in 10 parts, emphasising four main aspects  – the definition of gig workers, the establishment of a tripartite council to determine income and working conditions, a dispute resolution mechanism and social security protection.

The Dewan Negara also passed the Fisheries (Amendment) Bill 2025, which is aimed at strengthening existing fisheries laws to curb illegal, unreported and unsupervised fishing and to raise penalties for fisheries-related offences.

Deputy Agriculture and Food Security Minister Datuk Arthur Joseph Kurup said that the bill increased fines from RM5,000 to RM250,000 for those who caught, owned or traded endangered species, including aquatic mammals and turtles, and more significantly, raised the general penalty rate from RM20,000 to RM100,000, along with offences using explosives, poisons and pollutants from RM20,000 to RM250,000.

“Offences committed in marine parks and reserves would be punishable with a maximum fine of up to RM1 million,” he said when winding up the debate on the bill today, adding that the bill would tighten coordination between enforcement agencies, improve subsection 13(3A) that banned license applications from those convicted of offences for a period of up to five years to curb repeat offenders.

The bill would introduce two new sections, Section 56C that provides the Fisheries director-general the authority to control and prohibit fishing activities in polluted areas, and Section 57A that establishes specific offences relating to providing false statements for matters under the Act.

The Dewan Negara sitting will continue tomorrow.

— BERNAMA

Follow us on social media :
Facebook : @bernamaofficial, @bernamatv, @bernamaradio
Twitter : @bernama.com, @BernamaTV, @bernamaradio
Instagram : @bernamaofficial, @bernamatvofficial, @bernamaradioofficial
TikTok : @bernamaofficial