Malaysia Passes Gig Workers Bill 2025 to Protect Millions of Workers

The long-awaited Gig Workers Bill 2025 was approved by Malaysia's Parliament, providing statutory safeguards for over 1.2 million gig workers, including e-hailing and p-hailing drivers, freelancers, and digital content creators. The law introduces mandatory written service agreements, prohibits unfair practices, and establishes a Gig Workers Tribunal to resolve disputes. Human Resources Minister Steven Sim Chee Keong hailed the law as a significant step towards recognizing the contributions of gig workers to the economy.

Key Takeaways:

• The Gig Workers Bill 2025 recognizes gig workers as a distinct category of the labour force, neither traditional employees nor independent contractors.
• The law introduces statutory safeguards through mandatory written service agreements between workers and contracting entities, including Grab and Foodpanda.
• The Bill prohibits unilateral rate changes, arbitrary account deactivations, and restrictions on multi-platform work to curb unfair practices.
• The legislation covers a wide spectrum of gig workers, including e-hailing and p-hailing drivers, freelancers, and digital content creators.
• A Gig Workers Tribunal will be established to resolve disputes and order remedies such as reinstatement, compensation, or the payment of outstanding wages.
• Gig workers will have the right to be heard before any suspension, with compensation of half of their average daily earnings if found not at fault.
• The initiative was developed in consultation with over 4,000 stakeholders, including gig workers, platform companies, trade unions, academics, and non-governmental organizations.
• The draft was presented at the ILO's Technical Committee on Decent Work in the Platform Economy in Geneva to ensure alignment with international standards.

Statistics:

• Malaysia's total labour force as of the first quarter of 2025 stood at 16.7 million, with 3.45 million people engaged in informal work (20.65% of total employment).
• According to Socso records, 133,481 workers are contributing under the p-hailing sector and 189,450 under the e-hailing sector via the Self-Employment Social Security Act 2017.
• The legislation aims to protect over 1.2 million gig workers in Malaysia, including e-hailing, p-hailing drivers, freelancers, and digital content creators.

Sources:

• Malaysia's Parliament
• Human Resources Minister Steven Sim Chee Keong
• Social Security Organisation (Socso)
• Universiti Malaya
• ILO's Technical Committee on Decent Work in the Platform Economy in Geneva