Azalina says govt considering a Corporate Manslaughter Act

Summary

• Azalina Othman Said confirms that the government is exploring the introduction of a Corporate Manslaughter Act, similar to the UK’s 2007 law, to hold companies criminally liable for negligence resulting in death.

• This is particularly in response to fatal incidents involving public transport and workplace safety.

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform) Azalina Othman Said has announced that the government will consider implementing a Corporate Manslaughter Act.

This would be implemented under Malaysia’s newly launched National Action Plan (NAP) for Businesses and Human Rights 20225-2030, she said.

At the launch today, Azalina said that the NAP aims to set a framework for more robust protection of human rights within businesses, and will focus on implementation through three main pillars: labour, governance, and the environment.

Legal reforms under consideration through this framework include implementing a corporate manslaughter act, anti-Slapp (strategic lawsuits against public participation) laws, and supply chain due diligence laws.

Anti-Slapp laws are legal protections designed to prevent powerful individuals or organisations from using frivolous lawsuits to silence public criticism or participation in matters of public interest.

“The implementation will be carried out by Suhakam through a steering committee, with representatives from the Human Resources Ministry, the Natural Resources and Environmental Sustainability Ministry, and the MACC. We basically want to introduce more awareness and responsibilities for businesses. 

“Another issue I have discussed with the transport minister is also the issue of corporate manslaughter. He has also agreed with me, but there needs to be initial discussions with the Transport Ministry and the Legal Affairs Division first.

“A lot of these elements need to be taken into consideration. We cannot view businesses and human rights as separate matters,” she told reporters after the event.

Holding businesses accountable

In July, Azalina initially suggested the implementation of a Corporate Manslaughter Act in response to a fatal bus accident, which claimed the lives of 15 university students. 

She urged the government to assess the effectiveness of existing law enforcement, and to consider amending the Penal Code or introducing new legislation, such as one modelled after the UK Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act of 2007.

“This is an Act that allows a company to be prosecuted for serious failures in how it manages the safety of workers or the public, and for negligence that results in death.

“This Act was established in the UK as a response to several workplace death cases where no corporate entities could be held criminally liable under existing laws - especially companies providing transport services, as these involve priceless human lives,” she said last month.

In the UK, the offence was created in 2007 to overcome the limitations of the common law offence of gross negligence manslaughter as applied to companies and other incorporated bodies.

According to the Crown Prosecution Service website, the act widens the scope of the offence so that the focus is now on the overall management of the organisation’s activities rather than the actions of particular individuals.

Calls for similar laws in the past

Malaysiakini has also previously reported demands from the Labour Reform Council Coalition, urging for similar laws to be implemented. 

In 2022, for example, a coalition of trade unions, NGOs, and migrant workers’ communities made this recommendation as one of the four put forward to the government in their Occupational Health and Safety Preliminary Report 2022 fact sheet.

The group said the government must enact a Corporate Manslaughter Act, which will treat companies as corporate persons and sentence them for criminal offences.

In addition to a more rigorous framework for the protection of labour rights, Azalina also mentioned that ongoing reforms - such as the upcoming implementation of a Freedom of Information Act (FOI), amendments to the Whistleblower Protection Act, and establishing a national ombudsman - were in line with the NAP’s calls for more effective governance and regulation.

Malaysia is now the eighth country in Asia to implement a national action plan for businesses and human rights, based on guidelines set by the UN Guiding Principles and UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Last year, Azalina announced that the NAP would be launched in 2025 after the National Baseline Assessment had revealed critical gaps in nationwide labour protections, and limited corporate due diligence, especially amongst GLCs as well as small and medium enterprises. 

She mentioned that the NAP will be implemented in phases within the next five years and will include efforts such as awareness-building, training, and progress evaluation.

The NAP was first advocated by Suhakam as early as 2010, when the human rights commission conducted a series of forums, roundtable discussions, and investigations into human rights violations committed by businesses.

In 2015, Suhakam finally launched a strategy framework for the NAP and suggested guidelines for the Malaysian government to implement more human rights-focused business approaches. 

The NAP was eventually approved by the cabinet in 2019, led by the Legal Affairs Division of the Prime Minister’s Department, with intensive engagement from various ministries, agencies, CSOs and trade unions.

Also present at the launch today were Deputy Minister M Kulasegaran, Legal Affairs Division director-general Zamri Misman, Suhakam chairperson Hishamudin Yunus, and resident representative from UNDP (Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei) Edward Vrkic.

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