From 2 January 2027, Every Hire Starts With PERKESO. Are You Ready?

01The account assistant who resigned on a Friday

It is a Friday afternoon in January 2027. Your account assistant hands in her resignation.

You do what you have always done. You message two friends, post on JobStreet, and ask your HR executive to "find someone fast". By Wednesday, a candidate has accepted the offer.

Fast. Efficient. And, from 2 January 2027, possibly an offence.

Because there is now a step that comes before the job ad, before the interview and before the offer letter. You must tell PERKESO about the vacancy first.

Most SME owners have heard about the Employment Insurance System (EIS) as a deduction on the payslip. Few expect it to reach into how they hire. This amendment does exactly that.

02What changed: Act A1796 and the new employment services Part

The Employment Insurance System (Amendment) Act 2026 (Act A1796) amends the Employment Insurance System Act 2017 (Act 800). It was gazetted on 15 September 2026.

Three changes matter to employers.

• A new name. Under section 17(1) of Act A1796, references to the principal Act are now read as the "Employment Insurance System and Employment Services Act 2017". The name tells you the direction. PERKESO is no longer only paying benefits after a job loss. It is moving into job matching.
• A new Part on employment services. New sections 45A to 45H give PERKESO (the "Organization" in the Act) a role in employment brokerage, job matching, job counselling and career advice. Section 45B defines "employment brokerage" as a service to help any person find suitable employment and to help employers find suitable employees.
• A wider reach. Section 45A states that "Notwithstanding subsection 2(2), this Part shall apply to any person." In plain words, the general carve-outs that limit who Act 800 covers do not automatically take you out of this Part.

Two commencement dates. Most of the amending Act came into operation on 1 October 2026. Section 11 of Act A1796, which inserts the new sections 45A to 45H, comes into operation on 2 January 2027 [P.U.(B) 391/2026].

Also from 1 October 2026: richer benefits for your former staff. Through the Employment Insurance System (Benefit and Re-Employment Placement Programme) (Amendment) Regulations 2026 [P.U.(A) 346/2026], practitioner summaries report a higher Early Re-employment Allowance (50% of the remaining Job Search Allowance, up from 25%), a Training Allowance of RM30 per day, a training fee cap of RM7,000 and a new RM1,000 Mobility Assistance Allowance for a new job about 100 kilometres or more from home. These are worth knowing when you handle a retrenchment, but the hiring duty is the change that lands on your desk.

03Duty one: tell PERKESO before you hire

Section 45F(1) reads:

"For the purposes of employment brokerage, every employer shall notify the Organization in writing about a job vacancy or new position before the hiring of an employee to fill the job vacancy or new position."

Read it slowly. Four points stand out.

1. "Every employer." The section does not say "employers with 50 staff" or "companies above a revenue threshold". There is no SME carve-out in the text of Part VIa.
2. "Job vacancy or new position." A replacement for someone who resigned is a job vacancy. A role you create because the business is growing is a new position. Both are caught.
3. "In writing." The Act requires written notice. It does not name a form or a platform.
4. "Before the hiring." The Act sets no minimum number of days. The only rule is the order: notify first, hire second.

That last point is where the Friday resignation story goes wrong. The offer was accepted on Wednesday. If PERKESO was never told about the vacancy, the order was broken.

04Duty two: report the filled position within seven days

Section 45F(3) adds a second step after the hire:

"Where the job vacancy or new position has been filled, the employer shall notify the Organization in writing of that fact within the period of seven days after the job vacancy or new position is filled."

So every hire now has two touchpoints with PERKESO.

A worked example. Your account assistant resigns on 8 January 2027.

1. 8 January. You decide to replace her. Before you advertise, interview or make an offer, you notify PERKESO in writing of the vacancy.
2. 8 to 20 January. You advertise and interview as usual, through any channel you like.
3. 20 January. The new account assistant accepts your offer and the vacancy is filled.
4. By 27 January. You notify PERKESO in writing that the position has been filled.

One practical question the Act does not answer: is a vacancy "filled" when the offer is accepted, when the contract is signed, or on the first day of work? Until PERKESO clarifies, the safer reading is the earliest of these dates.

05The penalty: what "up to RM5,000" really means

You may have seen the headline "fines of up to RM5,000". That is accurate, but it is the ceiling, not the starting point.

Section 45F(4) provides that any employer who contravenes subsection (1) commits an offence and, on conviction, is liable to:

• First offence: a fine not exceeding RM1,000.
• Second offence: a fine not exceeding RM3,000.
• Third or subsequent offence: a fine not exceeding RM5,000.

Two details matter.

The offence is tied to the pre-hiring notice. Section 45F(4) refers to subsection (1) only. The text of section 45F does not itself make a late seven-day notice under subsection (3) an offence. Practitioners have read this differently, so do not treat the seven-day report as optional. It is still a statutory duty, and PERKESO may rely on other provisions of Act 800.

The fines were cut before the law was passed. When the Bill went through the Dewan Rakyat in December 2025, the proposed penalty was RM10,000 and drew pushback from SME groups. In February 2026, the Cabinet agreed to revise it to the RM1,000, RM3,000 and RM5,000 tiers now in the Act.

Each hire is a separate obligation. An SME that hires ten people a year without notifying PERKESO is not looking at one offence. It could be looking at ten.

06What is still unclear

The law is in place. The operating detail is not all settled. Here is what we are watching.

• The channel. Industry commentary reports that PERKESO intends MYFutureJobs to be the platform for vacancy notification. The Act itself only says "in writing". Whether a MYFutureJobs posting automatically satisfies section 45F(1) has not been confirmed.
• Exemptions. Part VIa contains no exemption for SMEs, specific industries or specific positions. Some commentary refers to possible exemptions being discussed. Until something is gazetted, assume none.
• Enforcement approach. It was reported in December 2025 that PERKESO had announced a transitional moratorium on enforcement. We have not been able to confirm its terms from a PERKESO source. Do not plan your compliance around a moratorium you have not seen in writing.
• Internal moves. The Act does not say whether an internal promotion or transfer that fills a vacancy needs notice. This is a common SME pattern and needs PERKESO's guidance.

07What you should do before 2 January 2027

1. Map your hiring trigger. Find the exact moment a vacancy becomes "real" in your company: a resignation letter, a manager's request, a budget approval. That is when PERKESO notice should start.
2. Add PERKESO to the checklist. Put "notify PERKESO (section 45F(1))" before "advertise" and "notify PERKESO filled (section 45F(3))" after "offer accepted" in your HR onboarding checklist.
3. Register on MYFutureJobs. Set up the employer account now, so you are not doing it on the day someone resigns.
4. Keep the evidence. Save the acknowledgement, screenshot or email for each notice in the employee's file. If PERKESO asks, the burden of showing you notified sits with you.
5. Brief whoever hires. In many SMEs, the boss hires, not HR. Make sure every manager who can make an offer knows the order: PERKESO first.
6. Watch for guidance. Check PERKESO's announcements for the platform, any exemptions and the enforcement approach before January.

Disclaimer

This article is general information based on the Employment Insurance System (Amendment) Act 2026 (Act A1796) and public commentary available as at 4 November 2026. It does not constitute legal, tax, audit or employment advice for any specific situation. Operating guidance from PERKESO may change how these duties apply in practice. Verify the latest position with PERKESO before acting.

This article was prepared with the assistance of AI tools and reviewed by a licensed professional before publication.

09 Sources

• Employment Insurance System (Amendment) Act 2026 (Act A1796), Laws of Malaysia Online (lom.agc.gov.my): sections 1, 11 and 17, and new sections 45A to 45H of Act 800
• Employment Insurance System Act 2017 (Act 800), section 2(2)
• Employment Insurance System (Benefit and Re-Employment Placement Programme) (Amendment) Regulations 2026 [P.U.(A) 346/2026]
• Commencement notification P.U.(B) 391/2026, as cited by Skrine: https://www.skrine.com/insights/alerts/october-2026/amendments-to-employment-insurance-system-legislat
• Shearn Delamore & Co, via Conventus Law, "Hiring Soon? Employers Will Need To Notify PERKESO Before Filling Vacancies": https://conventuslaw.com/report/malaysia-employment-and-industrial-relations-update-hiring-soon-employers-will-need-to-notify-perkeso-before-filling-vacancies/
• Malay Mail, 13 March 2026, Senate passes Employment Insurance amendments: https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2026/03/13/senate-passes-employment-insurance-amendments-enabling-lump-sum-mobility-allowance-for-jobseekers/212434
• PERKESO: https://www.perkeso.gov.my