Saravanan said the federal government declared the public holidays to encourage Malaysians to come out and vote.

He said the public holidays were declared under Section 8 of the Holidays Act 1951. The section refers to general holidays allocated to workers in the private sector pursuant to Section 60D(1)(b) of the Employment Act 1955.

“According to these provisions, employers can substitute any other day in lieu of a paid public holiday for employees,” Bernama quoted him as saying.

He said employers are required to inform their workers whether to choose Nov 18 and 19 as public holidays or replace them with other dates.

If there are no replacement days, employees who work on those dates are eligible to receive the salary rate for public holidays, he said.