Malaysia faces calls to tighten haze rules for 1.8 million workers

Malaysia faces calls for binding haze work rules after The Straits Times reported in an Oct. 29 article that outdoor workers kept working without masks as Air Pollutant Index readings reached 150 to 180.

The issue affects Malaysia’s more than 1.2 million construction workers and estimated 600,000 delivery riders and drivers, according to the article. Schools can close when pollution breaches dangerous levels, but outdoor workers have fewer protections.

Air Pollutant Index, Malaysia’s air-quality gauge, classifies readings above 100 as unhealthy, above 200 as very unhealthy and above 300 as hazardous. The Health Ministry advises N95 respirators for outdoor workers at 101 to 200, reduced strenuous activity and reassignment of vulnerable employees indoors.

The Department of Occupational Safety and Health issued updated guidelines on Oct. 15 requiring employers to assess haze risks, supply suitable respiratory protection and reduce or suspend dangerous work, The Straits Times reported. The department can order work stopped if conditions create immediate danger and employers do not take adequate precautions.

Enforcement remains unclear. The Straits Times said it sought comment from the department on inspections and penalties but had not received a response by publication.

Daily-paid workers described the income trade-off. Abdul Khaliq, a 45-year-old construction worker from Indonesia’s East Java province working in Shah Alam, Selangor, told the newspaper: “There is no haze in my village back home. My family is not affected, but here I am suffering from the smoke.”

Food delivery rider Raja Mohamad Aminurashid Raja Kamal Bahrin, 35, told the newspaper he works 11 hours a day and completes 25 to 30 deliveries to earn about RM100, or S$31. “Wearing a mask makes it hot and uncomfortable, especially when you are out on the road for hours,” he said.

Jahaberdeen Mohamed Yunoos, senior lawyer at Messrs Jahaberdeen & Co, told The Straits Times that Malaysia’s Occupational Safety and Health Act 1994 requires employers to protect workers from hazards but does not set haze-specific outdoor-work rules. Breaches of Section 15 can bring fines of up to RM500,000, imprisonment of up to two years, or both.

The law gives employees a right under Section 26A to remove themselves from imminent danger after notifying an employer, with protection against retaliation, the lawyer said. But he said an unhealthy Air Pollutant Index reading does not automatically meet the threshold of serious risk of death or serious bodily injury.

S. Arutchelvan, deputy chairman of Parti Sosialis Malaysia, a workers’ rights political party, said many outdoor workers are not unionised and have little leverage over work conditions. “Profit above the well-being of workers, especially lowly paid workers, has always been the norm of the day and the system,” he said.

Arutchelvan said the state should protect workers by law when pollution reaches very unhealthy and hazardous levels, and pointed to wage subsidies used during the Covid-19 pandemic as a possible model for compensation during severe haze.

Source: news article, The Straits Times, Oct. 29, 2026