The sixty-day rule: what a dismissed employee must do first

Of everything we explain at case assessments, one rule does the most damage when learned late: a representation for reinstatement under section 20(1A) of the Industrial Relations Act 1967 must be filed within sixty days of the dismissal. Not sixty working days. Not sixty days from when the internal appeal fails. Sixty days, calendar, from the date the dismissal takes effect.

Where the clock starts

For a straightforward termination letter with immediate effect, the clock starts that day. Three variations cause most of the confusion:

• Notice being served out. Where you are dismissed with notice, the sixty days run from the expiry of the notice period — and section 20(1A) expressly allows you to file during the notice period without waiting for it to end. If you are on garden leave, do not wait.
• Payment in lieu. Where employment is ended immediately with salary in lieu of notice, the effective date is the termination date stated, not the end of the notional notice period. Treat the earlier date as the real one.
• Internal appeals. An appeal to management does not suspend the clock. We have met more than one employee who spent seven weeks waiting politely for an appeal outcome that arrived after day sixty. File first; appeal in parallel.

Why the deadline is absolute

The sixty-day limit is jurisdictional. The Director General of Industrial Relations has no power to accept a late representation, and no forum — not the Industrial Court, not the High Court on judicial review — can extend it on sympathy. A meritorious claim filed on day sixty-one is worth exactly nothing in this forum. (Contractual claims in the civil courts and money claims in the Labour Court survive on their own limitation periods, but the reinstatement remedy and the Industrial Court's compensation conventions go with the deadline.)

What filing actually involves

The representation itself is a short form filed at the Department of Industrial Relations — in person or through the online facility — stating the parties and the dismissal. It is deliberately simple; no statement of case is required at this stage. What follows is a conciliation meeting at JPP, where a conciliation officer explores settlement. Since the 2021 amendments, matters unresolved at conciliation are referred by the Director General directly to the Industrial Court — the old ministerial filter is gone, which has made the pipeline faster and the early stages more consequential.

Doing the sixty days well

The window is short but sufficient, if used deliberately: fix the effective date in writing, file early rather than at the wire, preserve your documents (appointment letter, payslips, the termination letter, appraisals, the messages that tell the real story), and arrive at conciliation knowing your number — backwages exposure, one month per year of service, and what you would genuinely accept. Employees who treat conciliation as a formality get a date for the Industrial Court; employees who arrive prepared quite often get a settlement.

This article is general information, not legal advice. Deadlines in your matter depend on facts we have not seen — if you have been dismissed, have the dates checked properly, this week.

Faiza binti Kamaruddin

Managing Partner, Faiza Loke & Sivam