The sixty-day rule comes first
A representation under section 20(1A) must be filed at the Department of Industrial Relations (Jabatan Perhubungan Perusahaan) within sixty days of your dismissal. The window runs from the date the dismissal takes effect — not from your last conversation with HR, and not from the day your appeal inside the company fails. The deadline is jurisdictional: file on day sixty-one and no forum can hear you, however strong the merits.
If you are serving out notice, the sixty days generally run from the expiry of the notice, and you may file before it expires. When the dates are ambiguous — payment in lieu, garden leave, backdated letters — we treat the earliest arguable date as the real one. Our first job in every assessment is to fix your deadline in writing.
What counts as dismissal without just cause
The Industrial Court looks past labels to substance. In our experience the recurring patterns are:
- Misconduct dismissals without due inquiry — the employer must prove the misconduct and show a fair process; section 14 of the Employment Act 1955 requires "due inquiry" before dismissal on misconduct grounds.
- Poor performance without genuine warning — an employee must be told the shortfall, given a real opportunity and time to improve, and warned of the consequence. A performance improvement plan designed to be failed does not count.
- Redundancy that is not genuine — retrenchment is the employer's prerogative only where the redundancy actually exists and selection is fair. A "redundant" role re-advertised weeks later is the classic tell.
- Forced resignation — a resignation extracted under threat ("resign or we terminate you") can amount to dismissal.
- Probationers dismissed casually — probationers enjoy the same protection; confirmation cannot be withheld in bad faith and dismissal still requires just cause.
What you can recover
The primary statutory remedy is reinstatement, but in practice the Industrial Court most often awards monetary compensation: backwages of up to twenty-four months of last-drawn salary (twelve for probationers), usually with a deduction for post-dismissal earnings, plus compensation in lieu of reinstatement, conventionally one month's salary per year of completed service. On a RM 8,000 salary and nine years' service, the arithmetic is significant — which is exactly why employers settle strong cases at conciliation.
How we run these matters
We file the representation, prepare you properly for JPP conciliation (most of our employee-desk settlements happen there), and if the Director General refers the matter, we run the Industrial Court reference: statement of case, witness statements, hearing and submissions. You will have a fee estimate in writing before each stage begins — see our fee guide.