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<\/figure>Thaipusam is a public holiday in some states and an ordinary working day in others. Every state observes its own Ruler’s or Governor’s birthday, on its own date. Good Friday, Gawai, and the Kaamatan harvest festival are holidays in Sabah and Sarawak but nowhere else, and Sarawak has its own state day. The upshot is that an employee’s public holiday entitlement is not set by the company. It is set by the state they work in.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
For a business with one office in one state, this never surfaces. For a retail chain, a logistics operator, a manufacturer, or any employer with staff spread across states, it surfaces constantly, and usually invisibly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Where One Calendar Gets It Wrong Twice<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
A single national holiday list applied to everyone fails in both directions at once.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It underpays. An employee in a state that gazettes Thaipusam is entitled to that paid holiday, and if the company calendar does not carry it, they are either wrongly made to work an ordinary day or wrongly denied the holiday pay they are owed. That is a breach with the employee’s state and the date attached.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It also overpays. Apply a state holiday to staff in a state that does not observe it, and the company hands out a paid day, or a public holiday premium for those who work, on a day the law treats as ordinary for them. One is a compliance gap, the other is money given away by mistake, and both come from the same assumption that the calendar is national when it is not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Fix Is Setting the Calendar Up Right, Once<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
No payroll team can hold every state’s gazette in their head each month, and they should not have to. The work belongs at setup, not at every payroll run.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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