KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 18 — The Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF) has dismissed calls for legislation to protect pregnant workers, after a court slashed by 90 per cent a RM300,000 award for damages in a landmark gender discrimination case.
MEF executive director Datuk Shamsuddin Bardan also said pregnancy generally should not be a criterion for employment, but highlighted certain occupations such as flight attendants where a woman’s pregnancy was pertinent to job safety.
“It is not necessary to legislate on such issue(s),” Shamsuddin told Malay Mail Online.
“If the employer is proven to be (at) fault, the court may award damages and compensation against the employer,” he added.
He also warned job candidates that they risked disciplinary action once hired if they failed to be honest about their pregnancy should they be asked.
It is not illegal in Malaysia for prospective employers to ask job candidates if they are pregnant, while such questions are prohibited in the US under its Pregnancy Discrimination Act.
On Monday, Shah Alam High Court judicial commissioner Datuk Azimah Omar reduced the award in damages for Noorfadilla Ahmad Saikin by 90 per cent to RM30,000 after finding the original sum of RM300,000 to be inappropriate and tantamount to a “handsome profit” for the 34-year-old.
The original RM300,000 awarded in 2014 was damages for breach of Noorfadilla’s constitutional right to gender equality, after she won a lawsuit in 2011 against the government for revoking her appointment as a temporary teacher back in 2009 due to her pregnancy.
