THE IMPLEMENTATION OF EMPLOYEE ASSISTANCE PROGRAM IN MALAYSIA, THE UNITED KINGDOM AND AUSTRALIA IN DEALING WITH MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES AT WORKPLACE: AN OVERVIEW

Abstract

Workers are currently struggling to cope with assigned tasks. As the workload increases and improperly managed, workers are certainly exposed to work-related stress, which will not only affect their performance, but also their mental health. Employers may implement Employee Assistance Program (EAP) that offers counselling sessions, workshops, support group and others, as a preventive and proactive measure to help their employees to overcome issues associated with work-related stress. Nevertheless, EAP is subject to limitations in terms of its effectiveness, such as its implementation is not optimized by organisations adapting it, and less effective EAP sessions that barely resulted in improvement of workers' mental health. Malaysian law does not stipulate the implementation of EAP in organizations. However, Section 15 (2) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act 1994 impliedly supports the introduction of EAP in Malaysia. The purpose of this paper is therefore to explain how employers in Malaysia should implement EAP to help their workers’ mental health well-being, as well as to compare how EAP is implemented in the United Kingdom and Australia. This paper applies qualitative method, which consist of doctrinal legal research approach to understand the program dealing with mental health. Comparative method will also be employed in order to compare the legal frameworks and programs related to mental health well-being in the developed countries such as the United Kingdom and Australia and this involves examination of the similarities and dissimilarities between situations within the same legal system. This paper concludes that the implementation of EAP in an organization will be able to promote the mental health well being of employees.