Is Work-Life Balance Legally Enforceable? Insights from Minimalist Values

Abstract

The current capitalistic society pushes materialistic nature that goes against minimalist lifestyle while indirectly encouraging overworking culture. This paper, thus, intends to discuss the essence of work-life balance within the context of minimalist views, which are feasible to be legally enforceable within Malaysia's legislature. It will highlight societal values on moderation that are not foreign to Malaysia yet have been drowned by the capitalist and maximalist drive, which prevents work-life balance; both by choice and by force against the employees. The literature review will then proceed to ground the current standing of literature and legal works pertaining to work-life balance within the context of minimalism while engaging with a comparative highlight towards the Nordic States including Denmark, Finland, and Sweden which successfully legalise work-life balance. Emphasis is also given on the current International Labour Organisation entanglement with Malaysian law to the concept of work-life balance. In this research, the paper will focus itself to the scope of doctrinal and juridical-normative by focusing on the effective method of comparison between the Nordic model, which can be adopted into Malaysian employment law. The findings demonstrate the acceptability of work-life balance culture among the newer generations in Malaysia, lack of welfare adaptation within Malaysian employment law, successful legal framework stemming from cultural appreciation to the minimalist work-life balance and struggling economic livelihood which abolish the capacity of work-life balance in many households. Thus, this paper recommends social media engagement to pressure the government, bill drafting in the Parliament, educational reform, and reinterpretation of the term ‘life’ within Article 5 of the Federal Constitution through judicial review are the appropriate suggestions of increasing the likelihood towards a legal enforceability on work-life balance. Hence, this research concludes that work-life balance is feasible to be implemented in the Malaysia legislature provided that it is emphasised by the masses of the public within an actual and adequate social necessity rather than an activist outcry.