industrial court malaysia - Malaysian Legal and Tax Information Centre

Appeal had observed that in industrial jurisprudence, reinstatement is the usual
or primary remedy, Y.A. Lim Heng Seng (at that time) made the observation that
the principle that reinstatement is the primary remedy must “be seen in the
context of the statutory emphasis on expedition in the conciliation process and
the stipulation of the statutory aspiration for the conclusion of the adjudication
without delays and where practicable within 30 days of the reference to the
Court. It cannot be gainsaid that Parliament did not contemplate that the whole
process will take too much time, and that hence the expediency of the remedy of
reinstatement would not be negated by long delays in the dispute resolution
processes provided by the Act”.
He went on to observe that “in practice, reinstatement in industrial adjudication is
no longer the normal, or the usual and the general remedy regularly granted by
the Court”.
Hence in making its decision the Court has to bear in mind the need to maintain
this proper balance between the conflicting claims.
The reality of the present day situation is that whilst the primary remedy for
unjust dismissal is reinstatement, it cannot be denied that it is no longer
the usual remedy.
As observed by this Court in the case of Teh Cheng Hock v Lilly Industries
Sdn Bhd, Award 209 of 2010:
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