Employment Act, Domestic Inquiry and Workplace Compliance Training for Managers

Welcome and Programme Overview

Introduction to the session, objectives, and housekeeping.

The Employment Act 1955 After the 2022 Amendments

What changed when the Employment (Amendment) Act 2022 came into force on 1 January 2023: the extension of the First Schedule to employees regardless of wage level, and which entitlements remain limited by the RM4,000 monthly wage threshold. Reduced weekly working hours, the expanded maternity entitlement, paternity leave and its qualifying conditions, and the flexible working arrangement application process and the employer's duty to respond. Where the Act sets a floor that a contract or handbook cannot undercut.

Break

Misconduct, Investigation and the Show Cause Letter

What counts as misconduct and how it differs from poor performance, which is a separate track with separate risks. Running an investigation before any decision is taken, the statutory limits on suspending an employee pending inquiry and the wages payable during it, and how to write a show cause letter that states the allegation with enough particularity for the employee to actually answer it. Common drafting errors that hand the employee a procedural defence.

Conducting a Domestic Inquiry

Constituting the panel and keeping it free of anyone who investigated or is implicated, notice and disclosure to the employee, the right to be heard, calling and questioning witnesses, and the standard of proof. How the inquiry should be recorded, what the panel's findings and recommendation must contain, and why the decision-maker on penalty should sit outside the panel. The consequences of skipping the inquiry, and the limited situations where that is defensible.

Lunch

Sexual Harassment: The Employer's Duty to Inquire

The employer's obligation under the Employment Act to inquire into a sexual harassment complaint, the notice employers are required to display to raise awareness, and the additional avenue available to complainants through the Tribunal established under the Anti-Sexual Harassment Act 2022 (Act 840). Receiving a complaint without prejudging it, confidentiality and its limits, protecting a complainant from retaliation, interim separation of the parties, and handling a complaint against a senior person or across reporting lines.

Termination, Dismissal and Constructive Dismissal

Termination with notice against dismissal for cause, and why just cause and excuse is the test that matters. Probationers, fixed-term contracts and the risk of successive renewals. Retrenchment and the expectations around selection criteria and last in first out. Constructive dismissal and the unilateral changes to duties, reporting line, location or pay that trigger it. Why a resignation extracted under pressure is frequently treated as a dismissal.

Break

When It Reaches the Industrial Court

Representations for reinstatement under the Industrial Relations Act 1967, the time limit for filing, and how the process runs after the 2020 amendments took effect. What the court looks for in the employer's documentation, how remedies including back wages and compensation in lieu of reinstatement are approached, and which records need to exist long before a claim is filed.

Scenario Workshop

Participants work through anonymised scenarios covering a misconduct dismissal, a harassment complaint and a constructive dismissal claim, deciding the next step at each stage and identifying where the employer's position becomes vulnerable.

Wrap-Up and Q&A

Key takeaways, next steps, and close.