CHOOSING A WORKING HOURS SYSTEM

Traditionally, organization of working hours required that all

workers is an establishment work the same hours.
These hours which commonly started in the morning and finished
at the late afternoon were fixed by the employer.
8 a.m. to 4 p.m. or 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. patterns are exceedingly
common used by an organization.
Non-traditional working hours can provide benefits to both
employers and employees. So far, however, Malaysian employers
prefer their employees to stick to traditional working hour
systems.
In a tight labour market, work sharing, flexitime systems, parttime shifts and the compressed work week are examples of
systems which can help to recruit employees.

OVERTIME WORK
What is overtime?
Overtime is
work done
outside the
normal hours
of work which
permitted up
to a
maximum of
104 hours
per month.

Overtime
work cannot
be made
compulsory
except in
certain
circumstance
and
industries
(the essential
services)

An employee
may not be
permitted to
work more
than 12
hours per
day inclusive
of overtime.

OVERTIME WORK
Workers who work overtime hours are rewarded with
higher rates of pay. They also earn at a higher rate
than normal.
The overtime rates set by the Employment Act are
as follows:
Overtime worked on an Ordinary Working Day
= 1.5 times the normal hourly rate

Overtime worked on a Rest Day

= 2 times the normal hourly rate

Overtime worked on a Public Holiday

= 3 times the normal hourly rate

OVERTIME WORK
A temporary
shortage of
manpower

Difficulty in
recruiting
additional
workers

REASON
S FOR
OVERTI
ME

Low productivity
of the workers

A temporary
increase in
workload

OVERTIME WORK
Problem Cause by Excessive Overtime

Increase
cost

Overtime rates are paid higher than normal rate.

Utility cost will also increase if the organization for longer hours.

Effect on
employee
s morale

Those who have family commitments or others will not be very keen to
do overtime.
If the workers perceive inequities in the opportunity to do overtime, they
may become very disillusioned.

Lowered
productivi
ty

The reasoning behind this assertion is that longer working hours lead to
increase fatigue, which in turn results in more mistake, more accidents,
slower speed of work, and thus, reduce productivity.

Effect on
employe
es
health

British Medical Research Council and other medical bodies found that civil
servants who frequently worked longer hours were at risk of a major
depressive episode.
Scientists at the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health found that those
who work longer hours had a 40% to 80% greater chance of heart
disease.

OVERTIME WORK
STEPS TO REDUCE OVERTIME WORK
1. Keep records. The record should show:

The
The
The
The

number of overtime hours worked per month

departments in which overtime is done
number of workers doing overtime
justification given by the supervisors for the overtime work

2. Recruiting new staff. Alternatives needed to be though about:

Taking on additional full-time staff
Taking on part-time staff
Subcontracting some work to other organization

Steps to Reduce Overtime Work (cont.)

4. Improving supervision and training.
Management need to examine the performance target set for the workers and
the actions taken to ensure the targets are met.
If the cause of excessive overtime is not shirking by the workers, but a genuine
inability to work faster, the organization need to increase the amount of training
given to the workers.

5. Investment in technology.
Frequent overtime is cause by the breakdown of a machinery in normal working
hours, investment needed for new machinery or better maintenance.

6. Changing the mode of payment.

Use incentive system which will cut back overtime.
If the target for the workers are achieved, a cash-incentive payment will be
given.
If they exceed the target, they receive a further incentive.

SHIFT WORK
What is shift work?
Shift work is by no means an easy concept to define.
Possibly, the difficulty lies in the fact that there exists a
wide variety of types and patterns of shift work.
Shift work involve:
Hours of work, which include hours inside the normal or
traditional 8 to 4, or 9 to 5 pattern.
Two or more groups of workers who take turns to man the
workstations.

SHIFT WORK
Double-day
shift
Rotating
and
permanen
t shift

TYPES OF
SHIFT
WORK
Split shift

Triple
shift

SHIFT WORK
DOUBLE-DAY SHIFT
Where the employer finds it advantageous, he will
introduce the double-day system of shifts.
The organization is working 16 hours per day.
A 1989 survey of Malaysian companies (Aminuddin,
1990) revealed that only 22% of organizations are using
double-day system.
The most
popular starting and finishing times:
Shift I 7.00 a.m. to 3.00 p.m.
Shift II 3.00 p.m. to 11.00
p.m.

SHIFT WORK
TRIPLE SHIFT
Many organizations may prefer for economic reasons to
work around the clock.
Some industries have no choice but to offer 24-hours
services.
Triple shift systems can be either:
Continuous, in which case the organization is operating non-stop
and only close for annual maintenance, or
Semi-continuous where the company only works five or six days a
week.
Shift I

The most

7.00 a.m. to 3.00 p.m. (morning

popular
starting and finishing
shift)

Shift II

3.00 p.m. to 11.00 p.m. (evening

shift)

Shift III

11.00 p.m. to 7.00 a.m. (midnight

shift)

times:

SHIFT WORK
SPLIT SHIFT
Split shift found most commonly used in the hotel
business.
This involve working several hours early in the morning,
having time off and then continuing the same shift later
in the same day.
This system is used because of the employers needs
for workers at certain peak periods of the day.
The Employment Act requires that the working day in
this system should not be longer than 10 hours
although an employer could apply for exemption from
this ruling.

SHIFT WORK
ROTATING AND PERMANENT SHIFT
This is the system whereby an individual worker, if he is on
double-day system, alternates between the first and the second
shift on a regular basis, usually weekly.
If the worker is in a continuous shift system, he will rotate
regularly between the three shift.
The purpose is to ensure that all workers share equally the
more unpopular working hours especially the night shift.
The evidence (Aminuddin, 1990) suggest that in Malaysia over
70% of employers implement this system.
This is largely because of the condition imposed by the Ministry
of Human Resources when organization request permission to
have shift work involving female workers.

SHIFT WORK
Problems Caused by Shift Work

Women and
night work

Increase in
costs

Workers
health and
shift work

Stress and
psychologic
al problems