A female employee is entitled for maternity leave with a minimum eligibility period of 60 consecutive days.

As a condition, she must have been employed in the company for at least 4 months before the confinement, and has worked for 90 days (or more) with the same company.

The maternity leave can be consumed anytime within 30 days of expected confinement but cannot be later than the day after the confinement. Those who have less than 5 surviving children are also eligible for maternity allowances.

For employees whose pay are on monthly rate, the maternity allowance will be based on her monthly salary. Otherwise, the rate is the ordinary rate of daily pay, or RM6 per day, whichever is higher, for a period of 60 consecutive days. During the period of maternity leave, no rest day and paid sick leave entitlement is eligible for the worker.

In September 2007, the Malaysia government announced that female employees in the civil service can opt to take up to 5 years of unpaid leave to look after their children. The previous unpaid leave entitlement was only up to 90 days.

After 5 years, they can come back to full employment and enjoy 3 times of salary increment they have missed.