Section 2

additional payments by way of overtime payments;

additional payments by way of bonus payments or annual salary supplements;

any sum paid to the employee to reimburse him for special expenses incurred by him in the course of his employment;

Employment 14

productivity incentive payments; and

any allowance however described;

“child” means a person who has not attained the age of 15 years;

“collective agreement” means an agreement relating the regulation of the relations of employers and employees;

“commencement of this Act” means the date of commencement of the main substantive provisions of this Act;

“Commissioner” means the Commissioner of Labour appointed under section 3(1);

“confinement” means the delivery of a child;

“contract of service” means, subject to section 10, any agreement, whether in writing or oral and whether express or implied, whereby one person agrees to employ another as an employee and that other agrees to serve him as an employee, and includes a contract of apprenticeship;

“contractor” means any person who contracts with a principal to supply labour or to carry out the whole or any part of any work undertaken by the principal in the course of or for the purposes of the principal’s trade or business;

“day” means a period of 24 hours beginning at midnight;

“dependant” means the following members of an employee’s family —

the wife;

the husband;

the father;

the mother; and

any child and any adopted child, living with or dependent on him;

“Deputy Commissioner” means a Deputy Commissioner of Labour appointed under section 3(1);

“domestic worker” means any house, stable or garden worker or motor vehicle driver employed in, or in connection with the domestic services of, any private premises and not in connection with any

Employment

B.L.R.O. 2/2026 15

trade, business or profession carried on by the employer in such premises;

“employee” means a person who has entered into or who works under a contract of service with an employer, and includes a workman and any public officer or employee of the Government included in a category, class or description of such officers or employees declared by the Minister, with the approval of

His Majesty the Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan, to be employees for the purposes of this Act or any Part thereof; but does not include any seaman, domestic worker or any person employed in a managerial, executive or confidential position or any person belonging to any other class of person whom the Minister, with the approval of

His Majesty the Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan, may by notification published in the Gazette, declare not to be employees for the purposes of this Act;

“employer” means any person who employs another person under a contract of service and includes —

the Government, in respect of such categories, classes or descriptions of public officers or employees of the Government as are declared by the Minister, with the approval of His Majesty the

Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan, to be employees for the purposes of this Act;

any statutory body;

the duly authorised agent or manager of the employer;

the person who owns or is carrying on or for the time being responsible for the management of the profession, business, trade or work in which the employee is engaged;

“gross rate of pay” means the total amount of money including allowances to which an employee is entitled under his contract of service either for working for a period of time, that is, for one hour, one day, one week, one month or for such other period as may be stated or implied in his contract of service, or for each completed piece or task of work but does not include —

additional payments by way of overtime payments;

additional payments by way of bonus payments or annual salary supplements;

Employment 16

any sum paid to the employee to reimburse him for special expenses incurred by him in the course of his employment;

productivity incentive payments; and

travelling, food or housing allowances:

Provided that in the case of employee on piece rates, the ordinary rate of pay shall be calculated by dividing the period of 14 days immediately preceding the day on which the rate of pay is required to be calculated by the number of days on which such employee actually worked during such period;

“health officer” means the Director-General of Health Services, and includes any officer to whom he has delegated the exercise or performance of any power or duty conferred or imposed on him by this Act to the extent of the power or duty so delegated;

“hours of work” means the time during which an employee is at the disposal of the employer and is not free to dispose of his own time and movements, exclusive of any intervals allowed for rest and meals;

“immigrant employee” means any employee who is normally resident outside

Brunei

Darussalam who has come to

Brunei Darussalam for the purpose of performing work in

Brunei Darussalam;

“industrial undertaking” means —

mines, quarries and other works for the extraction of minerals from the earth;

industries in which articles are manufactured, assembled, altered, cleaned, repaired, ornamented, finished, adapted for sale, broken up or demolished, or in which materials are transformed, including ship-building and the generation, transformation and transmission of electricity and motive power of any kind;

the construction, reconstruction, maintenance, repair, alteration or demolition of any building, railway, tramway, harbour, dock, pier, canal, inland waterway, road, tunnel, bridge, viaduct, sewer, drain, well, telegraphic or telephonic installation, electrical undertaking, gaswork, waterworks or other work of construction, as well as the preparation for or the laying of the foundation of any such work or structure;

Employment

B.L.R.O. 2/2026 17

the transport of passengers or goods by road, rail, sea, air or inland waterway, including the handling of goods at docks, quays, wharves, warehouses and airports, but excluding transport by hand:

Provided that if, having regard to the nature of the work involved in any occupation which forms part of the industrial undertaking,

His Majesty the Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan considers that such occupation should be excluded from the provisions of this Act relating to industrial undertakings, he may declare by order published in the Gazette that employment in such occupation is deemed not to be employment in an industrial undertaking for the purposes of this

Act:

Provided further that any undertaking of which a part only is an industrial undertaking shall not for that reason alone be deemed to be an industrial undertaking;

“licence” means a licence granted under this Act;

“medical practitioner” means a medical practitioner registered under the Medical Practitioners and Dentists Act (Chapter 112);

“mine” includes any undertaking, whether public or private, for the extraction of any substance from under the surface of the earth;

“Minister” means the Minister of Home Affairs;

“overtime” means the number of hours worked in any one day or in any one week in excess of the limits specified in Part 7;

“place of employment” means any place where work is carried on, for or on behalf of an employer, by an employee;

“principal” means any person who, in the course of or for the purposes of his profession, business, trade or work, contracts with a contractor for the supply of labour or for execution by the contractor of the whole or any part of any work undertaken by the principal;

“public holiday” means the days specified in Schedule 3;

“repatriation” means the return of an employee to his country of domicile or origin, and includes the return to his house of an employee who has been brought to a place of employment by an employer from any other place within Brunei Darussalam;

Employment 18

“salary” means all remuneration including allowances payable to an employee in respect of work done under his contract of service, but does not include —

the value of any accommodation or the supply of any food, fuel, electricity, water or medical attendance, or of any amenity or service excluded by order of the Minister published in the Gazette;

any contribution paid by the employer on his own account to any pension fund or provident fund;

any travelling allowance or the value of any travelling concession;

any sum paid to the employee to reimburse him for special expenses incurred by him in the course of his employment;

any gratuity payable on discharge or retirement; and

any retrenchment benefit payable on retrenchment;

“shift work” means work which by reason of its nature requires to be carried on continuously by two or more shifts;

“sub-contractor” means any person who contracts with a contractor for the supply of labour or for the execution by the sub-contractor of the whole or any part of any work undertaken by the contractor for his principal, and includes any person who contracts with a sub-contractor to supply labour or to carry out the whole or any part of any work undertaken by the sub-contractor for a contractor;

“sub-contractor for labour” means any person who contracts with a contractor or sub-contractor to supply the labour required for the execution of the whole or any part of any work a contractor or sub-contractor has contracted to carry out for a principal or contractor, as the case may be;

“workman” means —

any person who has entered into a contract of service with an employer in pursuance of which he is engaged in manual labour, including any artisan or apprentice, but excluding any seaman or domestic worker;

any person, other than clerical staff, employed in the operation or maintenance of mechanically-propelled vehicles used

Employment

B.L.R.O. 2/2026 19

for the transport of passengers for hire or for commercial purposes;

any person employed partly for manual labour and partly for the purpose of supervising in person any workman in and throughout the performance of his work:

Provided that when any person is employed by any one employer partly as a workman and partly in some other capacity or capacities, that person is deemed for the purposes of this Act to be a workman unless it can be established that the time during which he has been required to work as a workman in any one salary period as defined in

Part 4 has on no occasion amounted to or exceeded one-half of the total time during which he has been required to work in such salary period;

any other person specified in Schedule 1;

any person whom the Minister may, by notification published in the Gazette, declare to be a workman for the purposes of this Act.

“young person” means a person who has attained the age of 15 years but who has not attained the age of 18 years.