The contract test, not the fairness test
Malaysian courts apply the contract test: you must show the employer committed a breach going to the root of the contract of employment — not merely that it acted unfairly or unreasonably. The classic qualifying breaches are unilateral demotion, significant reduction of salary or responsibilities, transfer in bad faith to force resignation, and conduct destroying the relationship of mutual trust and confidence.
Two further requirements defeat more claims than the breach itself: you must resign in response to the breach, and you must do so promptly. Stay silent and keep working for months, and the law treats you as having affirmed the new terms.
The protest letter is the case
Before any resignation, the file needs a written protest: identifying the breach, rejecting it, and reserving your position. We draft these carefully — measured enough to keep settlement open, firm enough to anchor the claim. In many matters the protest letter alone brings the employer back to the table, because it tells them the next document is a section 20 representation.
Timing your exit
Once you resign claiming constructive dismissal, the sixty-day window under section 20 runs from the date your resignation takes effect. We plan the sequence with you: evidence gathered while you still have system access, protest lodged, medical and financial realities weighed, then — only if the breach is clear and the record supports it — the resignation letter that states exactly why you are treating yourself as dismissed.