Our Industrial Relations (IR) retainer service offers your organisation guidance and support in navigating the legal and HR aspects to managing your range of people issues. This includes practical advice on how best to manage:

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i) reorganisations, 

ii) staff performance and disciplinary issues,

iii) fixed-term contracts,

iv) transfers and other potential constructive dismissal claims,

v) union/collective bargaining/collective agreement disputes, and

vi) staff under prolonged illness.

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What Differentiates Us

Our premise is that effective IR advise requires an understanding of both the legal and human relations aspects to managing your workforce. An organisation may be legally right but still run afoul with the Industrial Court if they fail to manage the human relations aspects. 

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Examples (where our independent advise was useful/invaluable)

 

Scenario 1

A multinational's management team was getting increasingly agitated over an employee who had been taking excessive medical leave due to a recurring injury. After a period of one year, a decision was taken to issue the said employee with an ultimatum to either return to work or risk being dismissed. A letter was drafted and shown to us for our comments.

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Our Advise

We advised this multinational to consider the 'human relations' angle to the situation and how this would be seen by our Industrial Courts (should this matter later escalate into a dispute). Applying this perspective, we rewrote the letter in a more conciliatory yet firm tone which demonstrated compassion yet was unequivocally clear on the next steps should the employee continue to go on leave. This employee was subsequently terminated after persistently going on medical leave and claimed unfair dismissal. In court, the chairman commented that the company had acted fairly and found the said staff's dismissal to be with just cause.

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Scenario 2

A poor performing employee was transferred by a financial institution to another branch. The employee wrote in to claim that he was being victimised and threatened constructive dismissal. We were at this juncture consulted by the financial institution.

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Our Advise

We advised the company to provide an independent platform to hear the employee's complaints. This offer to have a third-party staff present was put in writing to the said staff before we oversaw the contents of the letter drafted by the organisation in responding to the staff's claims.

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The employee subsequently walked out claiming constructive dismissal. However, the Industrial Relations department/Minister of Human Resources declined to refer the case on the ground that a case for constructive dismissal had not been made out by the employee.

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Our Industrial Relations Retainer Rates

You can gain from the benefit of our advise via two services. The first retainer service comes with phone/fax/e-mail support service where for RM 3600 per annum. your organisation benefits from being able to consult us on any IR issue you may be facing. This service also comes with a subscription to our Malaysian Employment Wizard application which is updated on a monthly basis on the latest Industrial Court decisions and Frequently Asked Questions and Answers section.

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The second form of retainer service is via our management retainer service which includes face to face consultation. Under this service, we will also be responsible for drafting any related IR/HR disciplinary letters, contracts and employment related letters. This service also comes bundled in with a review of your organisation's HR policies and procedures. This service typically starts at RM 1000 per month to RM 6500 per month, depending on the number of face to face visits required, number of employees employed as well as scope of work required.

 

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