Introduction to “Knowledge Concerning Employees’ Legal Rights at Work Among Banking Employees in Malaysia”

Excerpt

In the first decade of the twenty-first century, employees’ knowledge of their legal rights at work remains one key mechanism that workers have for protecting their wages, hours and working conditions in a hypercompetitive, globalized world. As such, the topic presented in the following piece is of considerable interest in developing, industrial and post-industrial countries although, of course, employment legislation differs across nations due to a variety of historical, political, economic and cultural factors. In this timely article, Zoharah Omar, Chan Kit Yeen, and Rusinah Joned of the Department of Professional Development and Continuing Education, Faculty of Educational Studies at the Universiti Putra Malaysia, analyze data obtained from a sample of Malaysian banking employees with regards to their level of knowledge concerning their legal rights at work. Moreover, these researchers discuss the implications of workers possessing low levels of such knowledge while developing a number of recommendations that the government, trade unions and employers can take to increase levels of employees’ knowledge with respect to their legal rights at work. …