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영어

This paper is based on the analysis of two of the most important pieces of Malaysian employment legislation (Employment Act 1955 and Industrial Relations Act 1967) and the Malaysian Industrial Court awards (criterion-based sampling) on misconduct, domestic inquiry and the rules of natural justice. Misconduct is a conduct by the employee which is inconsistent with the fulfillment of the expressed or implied conditions of his service. In Malaysian employment relations, there seems to be an increasing number of Industrial Court cases related to employment misconduct. In 2005, 98.2% of the dismissal awards from the Industrial Court were related to the employment misconduct. Ineffective management of employment misconduct especially the violation of the rules of natural justice in the conduct of domestic inquires results an employee (workman) claiming unfair dismissal under Section 20, Industrial Relations Act 1967. Therefore the due (domestic) inquiry is a requirement (Section 14.1 of the Employment Act 1955, and the principles of common law), which the employer must adhere before meting out any punishment for employment misconduct. Recently, there had been several questions on the interpretation of Section 14(1) of the Employment Act 1955 on the need for domestic inquiry before dismissal for workman who are not within the scope of the Employment Act 1955. However findings from the Industrial Court awards reveals that many awards were made against the employers as they failed to conduct domestic inquiry and violated the principles of natural justice. This means domestic inquiry must beheld for serious misconduct cases and the accused employee must be accorded to a fair hearing based on the rules of natural justice. In this paper the authors are suggesting some proactive measures which can be taken by employers to minimize and to prevent employment misconduct, besides other guideline to improve employment relationship in the context of Malaysia.