It is Monday morning in Malaysia. The same employee has sent another MC, your shift is already short and somebody else has to cover. You are thinking what most bosses would think: surely one person cannot be sick every Monday.
Your suspicion is understandable. The pattern may justify a check.
It does not prove misconduct. If the MC is valid and the employee followed the notification rule, accept the sick leave unless you have an actual reason to suspect fraud. Then work out which problem you really have: a doubtful document, a notification breach, exhausted paid leave or genuine ill health affecting performance.
I am an employment lawyer, not a doctor. I cannot tell you whether somebody was genuinely sick by looking at the dates on a calendar. I can tell you which facts to check before suspicion turns into a payroll deduction or a warning letter.
This guide covers the Employment Act 1955 in Peninsular Malaysia and Labuan. Sabah and Sarawak have separate labour laws, and the answer can also change with the employee’s contract and the facts.
Is taking MC every Monday or Friday misconduct?
In Peninsular Malaysia and Labuan, a recurring Monday, Friday or difficult-shift pattern is not misconduct by itself when the MC is valid and the employee complied with section 60F of the Employment Act 1955. A real fraud concern or a separate breach of the notification rule may justify inquiry, but suspicion based only on the dates does not.
This distinction matters because the same empty workstation can come from very different problems.
- A valid MC with timely notice is sick leave.
- A valid MC with no notice or attempted notice within 48 hours may be an absence without permission and reasonable excuse under section 60F(2).
- A forged or altered MC may be serious misconduct once it is proved and the employee has been heard.
- Genuine ill health that prevents acceptable work may become a poor-performance or medical-capacity issue.
If the illness is genuine but the employee can no longer perform the job to an acceptable level, stop calling it truancy. Use a full performance improvement process. Medical boarding out is a separate, doctor-certified medical-capacity route. It is not a shortcut for dealing with frequent MC, and this article does not cover that process.
If the employee says a mental-health crisis is behind the absence, please pause the ordinary discipline route and look at the medical facts first. Remember what an accusation of faking illness can do to trust inside the company.
Can I reject an MC because it is outside my panel clinic?
In Peninsular Malaysia and Labuan, an employer cannot reject an MC solely because it came from outside the company panel. Section 60F gives the employer-appointed registered doctor priority, not exclusive authorityLegal source: Employment Act 1955, section 60F(1)(a) and (b), and the facts still matter where the panel doctor was not reasonably obtainable in time or distance.
A panel-only rule that rejects every other MC is not permitted by section 60F. An appointed doctor gets first priority. The section still allows another registered doctor or a medical officer where no doctor was appointed, or where the nature or circumstances of the illness meant the appointed doctor could not reasonably be reached.
The MC and the consultation bill are separate. You cannot reject the sick-leave day solely because the clinic was outside the panel. The company may keep consultation reimbursement tied to its panel benefit, but section 60F begins with an examination at the employer’s expense. Check the contract, the policy and the facts before refusing the bill.
How many days of paid sick leave does an employee get?
Under section 60F of Malaysia’s Employment Act 1955, outpatient sick leave is 14, 18 or 22 days a year according to length of service, with a separate 60 days for hospitalisationLegal source: Employment Act 1955, sections 60F(1), 60F(1A) and 7A. These are statutory minimums, so the contract or a collective agreement may give the employee more.
| Length of service | Outpatient sick leave | Hospitalisation sick leave | Total statutory entitlement |
|---|---|---|---|
| Less than 2 years | 14 days | 60 days | 74 days |
| 2 years to less than 5 years | 18 days | 60 days | 78 days |
| 5 years or more | 22 days | 60 days | 82 days |
Actual admission is not always required. If the doctor certifies that the employee is ill enough to need hospitalisation, section 60F treats the employee as hospitalised even if they were not admitted.
Once the employee has used the full paid entitlement, further genuine absence may be treated as unpaid leave. Check the contract first because the company may have promised more than the statutory minimum.
Does the employee have 48 hours to submit the MC?
No. In Peninsular Malaysia and Labuan, section 60F(2) gives the employee 48 hours to inform or attempt to inform the employer of the sick leaveLegal source: Employment Act 1955, section 60F(2). It does not say the employee has 48 hours to upload or hand over the MC document, although a clear company policy may ask for earlier operational notice and a photo where practical.
Your policy can say who the employee must call or message, when to do it and when to send a photo. The original MC can be handed in when the employee returns. That gives the supervisor time to cover the counter, kitchen, outlet or machine without pretending that an internal deadline replaces the Act.
If the employee neither informed nor tried to inform you within 48 hours, section 60F(2) treats the sick-leave days as absence without permission and without reasonable excuse. Misconduct action still requires due inquiry under section 14(1)Legal source: Employment Act 1955, section 14(1). Ask for the explanation before deciding the consequence.
Please do not be too heavy-handed with somebody who was in an ICU, under heavy medication or genuinely too ill to think about the rule. The section asks whether they informed or tried to inform you. That factual question comes before punishment.
I think the MC is fake. What can I check?
A Malaysian employer who doubts an MC may check the issuing doctor’s MMC registration and current Annual Practising Certificate, then contact the issuing doctor to clarifyLegal source: Malaysian Medical Council, Frequently Asked Questions: Medical Sick Certificate, questions 2, 5, 8 and 9. The employee’s diagnosis remains confidential unless the employee consents, and a backdated MC is not automatically fake.
Start with a quiet verification call. Ask the employee to authorise the clinic to confirm that it issued the MC, that the employee attended the consultation and that the doctor certified the employee unfit for work. The clinic may limit what it can tell you because of medical confidentiality. Do not ask for the diagnosis or medical records without consent.
Also check the document itself:
- the employee’s name and identification details
- the examination date and sick-leave dates
- the clinic’s name and contact details
- the doctor’s name and MMC registration number
- the certificate’s serial number
An altered-looking date or a backdated period is a reason to check, not proof of forgery. The MMC permits backdating in limited circumstances where the true issue date remains on the certificate and the earlier incapacity can be supported by the clinical record.
If the clinic confirms that the MC was forged or fraudulently changed, the matter is serious. Knowingly using a forged document as genuine may be criminal, and a proved fake MC may support dismissal for serious misconduct after due inquiryLegal source: Penal Code sections 465 and 471, Employment Act 1955 section 14(1), Jasveer Larrie Singh a/l Gurdik Singh v Celcom Mobile Sdn Bhd Industrial Court Award No. 888 of 2022, Kalai Arasi a/p Sivabalan v Gardenia Bakeries (KL) Sdn Bhd Industrial Court Award No. 648 of 2023. A police report is a separate decision. Do not use one as a standard threat before the evidence is clear.
Can I reject an MC issued through a telemedicine app?
Since 23 September 2025, the Malaysian Medical Council has prohibited a doctor from issuing an MC solely after teleconsultation. My view is that an employer may reject that MC and ask the employee to obtain one after an in-person examination, but that is an employment-law conclusion and not a consequence stated in the MMC direction.
The MMC’s words are: “The issuance of the Medical Sick Certificate solely following a virtual consultation (teleconsultation) is NOT ALLOWED.”Legal source: Malaysian Medical Council, Notification on the Issuance of Medical Sick Certificate by Registered Medical Practitioners Through Teleconsultation, 23 September 2025
The employee may return to that doctor for an in-person examination or see another doctor. Put this rule in the company policy so staff know what is expected before the problem happens. The answer may differ if there was an in-person examination and the app was only used to deliver the certificate.
Can I deduct the day from salary while I check?
The practical course for an employer in Peninsular Malaysia or Labuan is to pay the employee while a genuine MC check is completed promptly. Section 60F(3) requires the ordinary rate of pay for statutory sick leave, while section 100(5) makes failure to grant or pay it an offence and allows the court to order payment of the sick-leave pay dueLegal source: Employment Act 1955, sections 60F(3) and 100(5).
Do not turn a manager’s suspicion into an unpaid day before the certificate, the notification and the employee’s explanation are checked. If the MC is valid and paid sick leave remains, pay it.
The position changes after the employee has exhausted the paid entitlement. Further genuine absence can then be treated as unpaid leave, subject to any better entitlement in the contract or collective agreement.
What should I do before I accuse anybody of MC abuse?
For a Malaysian employer dealing with a doubtful or repeated MC, the practical order is to preserve the record, verify only what you are entitled to verify, hear the employee and then choose the correct route. This is general guidance under the Employment Act 1955 and MMC directions, and the right response still depends on the contract and the facts.
- Record when the shift started and when the employee first contacted you.
- Keep the message, MC and leave record together.
- Check whether the panel doctor was reasonably available.
- Check the doctor’s MMC registration and current Annual Practising Certificate.
- Contact the clinic if the certificate genuinely looks doubtful.
- Ask the employee for an explanation before changing pay or starting discipline.
- Classify the issue as valid sick leave, late notification, a doubtful document, exhausted paid leave or genuine ill health affecting performance.
- Fix the company policy so employees know who to notify, how to notify them and when to send the MC.
One clean record is more useful than six angry WhatsApp messages.
If the company already rejected an outside-panel MC, deducted pay or issued a warning on the wrong basis, rectify it. Correct the pay and leave record. Withdraw or correct the warning, then replace the bad rule before the next MC arrives.