Major reshuffle in Industrial Court to see more career officer appointees
The Kuala Lumpur Industrial Court is undergoing a major reshuffle following the non-extension of three chairpersons two-year tenure and the transfer of two more by month end, in line with the policy change in mid-2001 to appoint more cadre officers as chairpersons.
The Industrial Court has a total of 18 chairpersons. Prior to this reshuffle, 11 were appointed from among Judicial and Legal Service officers (who are cadre officers) while the rest were employed on contract basis.
The chairpersons were picked from a pool of high-ranking civil servants and practicising lawyers. For example, the current Industrial Court president Yusof Ahmad was practising law prior to this.
However, the post-reshuffle line-up will have 14 as cadre officers and only four on contract basis.
Yesterday, malaysiakini quoted an unnamed lawyer who said the contract of four chairpersons had not been extended.
However, when contacted today, Industrial Court registrar Zulkifli Abdullah clarified that only three did not get an extension of their contract. They are Mohd Noor Yahya, 62, Siti Saleha Sheikh Abu Bakar, 58, and Abu Hashim Abu Bakar, 63, who have served between five and seven years as Industrial Court chairpersons.
The contract of the three chairpersons expire on March 31. In fact, they were only notified last week on the status of their applications after they were rejected by the Human Resources Ministry.
The (Industrial Court) president had decided to hand over the part-heard cases and those pending awards to the new chairpersons when they come in on Monday, he told malaysiakini .
Zulkifli also confirmed that the transfers of Abdul Halim Abdullah and John Louis OHara will take effect from April 1 and 16 respectively.
He said Abdul Halim was being transferred as the Registrar of Companies while OHara will head to Putrajaya as the deputy head for the advisory and international division in the Prime Ministers Department.
Delayed notice
The five replacements are Amelia Tee Hong Geok, Lau Bee Lan, Ahmadi Asnawi, Zaini Abdul Rahman and Sulaiman Ismail.
Tee is the acting director of the compliance and enforcement division in the Securities Commission, Lau is the deputy head of the advisory and international division in the Attorney-Generals Chambers, Ahmadi is the chairperson of the Advisory Board in the Prime Ministers Department, Zaini is the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court judge while Sulaiman is the deputy director of the Judicial and Legal Training Institute.
The Industrial Court, unlike a normal court of law which forms part of the judiciary, falls under the purview of the Human Resources Ministry, with the minister having the discretionary powers to determine the tenure or the renewal of the chairpersons.
Usually, the chairpersons have to apply for a renewal six months before their term expires and will receive the reply within four months so that they are given at least one to two months notice to clear their cases.
However, the cause of the delayed notice for the three chairpersons this time around is not known.
Unsatisfactory appointment system
Malaysiakini reported yesterday that the Industrial Court is courting trouble following the major reshuffle because the three outgoing chairpersons handled about 20 cases each which were at various stages of hearing.
Some were part-heard cases while the others were pending awards, such as the case of Co-operative Central Bank which took about 15 years to reach the award stage after being stuck in the High Court for years.
But with the non-renewal of Abu Hashims tenure, its end is uncertain now.
The Bar Council had also criticised the present system of appointing Industrial Court chairpersons as most unsatisfactory and wants the appointments to be made permanent instead of on contract basis at the discretion of the minister.
Its chairperson Mah Weng Kwai also complained about the trend in recent years where cadre officers from the Judicial and Legal Service are appointed for a short spell before they are withdrawn to perform other duties.
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