Faster action on unfair dismissal cases

> Amendments to law being drafted to allow complaints to go directly to Industrial Court

PETALING JAYA: Human Resources Minister M. Kulasegaran ( pix) yesterday said his ministry is in the process of drafting amendments to the Industrial Relations Act 1967 (IRA) to allow unfair dismissal cases to proceed to the Industrial Court without the need for a referral from the minister.

“The amendments involve Section 20. The Industrial Relations Department currently looks at (such cases) and if the matter is unsettled, it will send the case to the minister to decide whether or not it should proceed to the Industrial Court.

“I want to take this power (of the minister) away. This means any case that is unsettled through reconciliation will automatically be referred to the court,” he said.

“I have already ordered my ministry to look into this and the Industrial Relations committee has started working on the draft. I hope it will be ready to be tabled to the Cabinet in two weeks.”

Kulasegaran said he and the committee met 25 lawyers in relation to the matter last Thursday. The lawyers included Anand Ponnudurai, Datuk T. Thavalingam and S. Muhendaran.

“We want to ensure all cases that come to the department is heard and resolved within a short time. At least, the reconciliation should be settled within a week to 10 days,” he said.

“If reconciliation is not attained, then there should not be any delay in the case going to the Industrial Court. No more three or four months to deal with unfair dismissal cases.”

However, he stressed that he had cautioned officers dealing with such cases that they must ensure there is no compromise in the quality of their work.

“Another area we are looking at is if the worker dies during the process of the case. The reason a worker takes a case to the department is to be reinstated to work. That cannot happen if the worker dies.

“We are looking at how the family of the worker can proceed with the case.”