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Updates on the Trials at the Industrial Court of Malaysia during the MCO Period (Circular No 303/202

Circular No 303/2021
Dated 29 July 2021

To Members of the Malaysian Bar

Updates on the Trials at the Industrial Court of Malaysia during the MCO Period

On 22 July 2021, the President of the Malaysian Bar, representatives from the Bar Council Industrial and Employment Law Committee, and several senior Industrial Court practitioners had a virtual meeting with the Yang Dipertua of the Industrial Court, YA Puan Reihana Binti Abd Razak (“YDP”), together with a few Industrial Court Chairmen.

The meeting was held to discuss the issue of adjournment of proceedings in the Industrial Court due to the various Movement Control Orders (“MCO”).  The Bar Council was informed that physical trials will continue to be adjourned during Phase 1 and Phase 2 of the National Recovery Plan.

To ease the backlog of cases at the Industrial Court, the YDP has indicated that trials may proceed by way of virtual trials.  The YDP informed us that the way forward would be for her to request permission from the relevant authorities to enable the Industrial Court Chairmen to enter the Court premises, together with the Court interpreters, to facilitate the virtual trials.  All other participants, namely counsel, witnesses, and translators (if applicable) will participate remotely, and they are not permitted to be physically present in Court.

During the meeting, the following matters were discussed and agreed to:

(a) The targeted commencement of this process, if permitted by the relevant authorities, is tentatively fixed on 15 Aug 2021;
(b) From 15 Aug 2021, priority will be given to part-heard cases. In this regard, trials of cases that have yet to commence may be postponed to a later date;
(c) For part-heard trials, which have been scheduled for continued hearing before 15 Aug 2021, parties may request to continue with these trials virtually if there is an urgent need to proceed, and the Court will try to accommodate such requests;
(d) For any application for matters to proceed virtually, consent must be obtained from both parties.  The Court may intervene in the event consent from one of the parties is unreasonably withheld, depending on the facts and circumstances of each case; and
(e) As far as possible, steps need to be taken by all parties participating in the virtual trials to ensure the integrity of the proceedings.

The proposed process stated above is subject to change, at the absolute discretion of the Yang Dipertua of the Industrial Court and/or depending on the standard operating procedures (“SOPs”) implemented by the National Security Council.

We will inform Members of any updates in regard to this matter.

Thank you.

Jaspal Singh Gill and Jayasingam Poopalasingam
Co-Chairpersons
Industrial and Employment Law Committee

 

Please click here to view the full circular on our website, or here to view it on our Facebook page.