The exit of four Industrial Court chairpersons whose applications for a three-month extension were rejected by the Human Resources Minister recently spells trouble for parties involved in part-heard cases and those where an award has yet to be written.

The chairpersons of Court 3, 6, 7 and 13 are each believed to currently handle around 10 cases which have been partly heard and 10 more with awards being written. And their last day of service is tomorrow.

It is learnt that four new chairpersons will replace them come Monday.

The Kuala Lumpur Industrial Court has a total of 15 chairpersons. Two other chairpersons had their contracts successfully renewed for six months and two years.

This is seen as the beginning of the problem as many of the part-heard cases and those with awards pending had taken a long time to reach the Industrial Court with another few years to go for them to be heard.

A labour lawyer cited the Credit Corporation Bhd (CCB) case as an example. The complainant waited for 13 years for the case to reach the award stage, only to face the possibility of it being delayed again since the chairperson who had just begun writing the award is one of the four disposed of.

There are many cases at various stages of hearing, which is why the extension should be given so that the chairpersons can complete the pending cases, said the lawyer who requested anonymity.

Appointment system unsatisfactory

Meanwhile, the Bar Council today criticised the present system of appointing Industrial Court chairpersons as most unsatisfactory and called for the appointments to be made permanent instead of on contract basis at the discretion of the minister.

Council chairperson Mah Weng Kwai said in a statement that the Bar was most concerned about the non-renewal of the fours two-year contract which expires on March 31.

He said employment contracts of court chairpersons have always been extended, even up to a year, so as not to inconvenience or cause chaos in the administration of justice where equity and good conscience are applied.

This sudden decision not to renew the services of these few chairpersons has left a lot of lawyers, unions, employers, employees/victims of unlawful termination in a state of shock and disbelief.

Mah said all the cases which are part-heard would be placed in jeopardy as a number of witnesses would no longer be available to give evidence should the same matter be heard de novo (continued from where it left off or heard afresh).

He anticipated a flood of enquiries and proceedings from the parties as to the legality of an award by a substitute chairperson.

No appointees from Bar

Mah also lamented the unresponsiveness of the ministry in addressing the issue when raised by the Council as an urgent matter, together with related matters involving the law and procedures on the appointment of Industrial Court chairpersons.

We understand that the prime minister and the Cabinet have approved the appointment of chairpersons from the Bar in the past but there has been none in recent times and no information has been provided by the ministry on the vacancies.

He criticised the trend in recent years where cadre officers from the judicial and legal services are appointed for a short spell before they are withdrawn to perform other duties.