THE FINDING OF RESEARCH
4.1.1 ABSENCE OF STATUTORY DEFINITION
The literatures that have been gathered and observed by researchers, scholars from all over the world has succeeded in pointing out that fixed-term contracts employment is a new phenomenon in the labour society.
One of the recognised distinctions between Malaysia and United Kingdom concerning the fixed-term worker is the absence of statutory definition. It is noticeable that the definition of fixed-term employment in Malaysia is ambiguous. The Employment Act 1955 does not provide any definition on fixed-term employment. The only reference that reflects fixed-term employment is section 11 of the Act, where it state impliedly that “a contract of service for a specified period of
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4.1.2 LACK OF LEGAL PROTECTION 4.1.2.1 SECURITY OF TENURE
One of the dilemma that is suffered by the fixed-term workers in Malaysia is the lack of security of tenure. This is due to the nature of fixed-term employment which will be terminated upon expiry of a term or upon completion of a specific task. The employers often take advantage over this matter through the use of successive renewal of employment contract without the intention to make the worker as permanent worker. This situation is mainly contributed by the absence of legislation to impose limitation of number of successive renewal allow for a worker to be considered as permanent worker.
In comparison, the fixed-term workers in United Kingdom enjoy a better position than their counterparts in Malaysia. This is the result of the limitation imposed on the use of successive fixed term contract by the 2002 Regulation. The regulation limits the use of successive fixed-term contracts to four years and the employees who believe that their fixed-term contract should be deemed permanent under the regulations have a right to make complaint. In other words, this Regulation establishes a right for any employee on fixed-term contracts who have served for 4 years or more to automatically become a permanent employee. Therefore, they have security of tenure as compared to Malaysian fixed term worker.
4.1.2.2 DEPRIVATION OF STATUTORY RIGHTS
Recruitment agencies are popular but unlike the Job Centre’s they charge commission for recruiting staff on a temporary or permanent basis. This means that the employer may have a chance to see how an employee is likely to work out by putting them on a three, six, twelve-month fix term contract initially. This is
Workers will also work to the terms of a contract, they will usually carry out the work personally. Workers will include casual work, agency work, freelance work and seasonal work. Workers are entitled to some employment rights including, national minimum wage, holiday pay, protection against unlawful discrimination, the right not to be treated less favourably if they work part-time. See point 2 Appendix
A fixed term contract employee is someone that will work for the organisation for a period of time, this could be for a certain project, maternity cover or at a peak period for the business. The organisation will provide an employee with a contract stating the purpose of the role with start and end dates
The statutory minimum notice periods on termination as laid out in the Acts are based on years
Temporary contracts, like fixed term contracts are usually contracted for a specific period of time. Temporary workers can be seasonal, contractors/freelancers, casual and/ or agency workers.
The lengthy recession meant that employers could not afford to keep permanent staff and now they are understandably concerned about committing to full or even part-time contracts. Rodgers, E, (2013). The greater use of zero hours contracts is taking place against a background of falling real wages, high levels of workplace fear regarding redundancy, and unfair treatment for a significant minority, this
In the post WWII period employment patterns are characterised by clear career progression paths while employees are likely to stay within the same company their whole working lives. While in contemporary times employees may move between companies changing jobs, possibly changing locations numerous times, due to lack of progression prospects. Sennett describes this as due to changes in organisational structures which make employees jobs project based little in the form of ‘linear progression’ in terms of promotion. In this system employees are seen as more dispensable pieces of organisational projects rather than a direct part of the company. As Beck (2000) states this system aims towards maximising organisational flexibility. However as Beck states (p. 3) this places workers in the heart of a system of ‘endemic’ and ‘incalculable risk’. The effects of this are apparent interviews conducted by William S. Brown (2005) on final year students at a business school. When the subjects were asked if contemporary working patterns made them feel ‘at risk’ the majority of respondents answered yes. This is a market in which employees are increasingly open to change jobs and where employers are more likely to remove an individual from the company. This means employees are individuals are unable to plan for their future due to an inability to assume both working positions and
First, when applying for a job the person should have a certain amount of experience for the job because so many people are not wanting to stay at a job for a long period of time. With that being said when someone is wanting a job at a company, the company should provide a contract stating how long a person has to work there before they want to quit to seek new employment. Having contracts saying how long someone has to stay at their company would limit the number of people changing their jobs after a year or two.
In employees' view, they accept the offers (e.g. salary, working time) of their jobs but not the threat of a layoff to enhance shareholder wealth freely. A sudden unilateral change in the labour relationship is equivalent to deception and coercion by management. Furthermore, there is a trend on increasing
I found your post to be somewhat interesting from your suggestion of having employees repay sunk cost if they don’t work for the organization over a given period. How can an organization attract and retain qualified individuals if a contract requires a repayment of lost monies if employment is not sustained over a period of time? Companies consider sunk cost as a cost that cannot be recovered and should not be taken into account in decision making. This type of cost is implemented in the budget, so employees are continually updated on new policies and procedures. Therefore, sunk cost in this situation can be viewed as advantageous to the
Workforce turnover is a complex and important issue amongst today's organisations. It is perhaps one of the most often cited cause of increased cost and decreased productivity. No wonder people management has become an important frontier to extract and create more value from company assets. On comprehending the articles, it has become evident that organisations have moved beyond the traditional approach of only investing in core business activities, to invest in employee retention strategies. Many organisations, for example St. George Bank
Short-term employment benefit is one of category for employment benefit and this category is basic that required company to provide to employees as compensated or contribution for employees in exchange of service provided to company. Apollo and Dutch Lady also provide wages and salaries and annual leave paid to employees as basic in short-term employment benefits. Besides that, contribution to pension fund like EPF also statutory to company that operates in Malaysia in order to take care of employees benefit in post-employment and both company also show this contribution in their annual report. Long term employment benefits and termination benefits depend on company either to provide or not. From above amount of wages and salaries, contribution to pension fund and others benefit, we learnt that Dutch Lady have big market and more employees rather than Apollo and from that Dutch Lady provide more benefits to employees. In conclusion, Malaysia required companies to provide employment benefits to employees and discuss in annual report and accounts of the year. Employees will find those benefits and use as guidelines to choose what company should they choose to work and usually they choose company that have more employment benefits and suitable with the employee which will provide service to
There is and will be an on-going conflict of interest between employer and workman. On one hand employer looks for more and more investment opportunity while on the other hand workman demands for better standard of living. Though there can be mechanism to reduce the tension but we don’t see a permanent answer to the issue. One of the very strong mechanisms identified is in the form of Industrial dispute act.
Chew, Y. T. (2005). Achieving Organisational Prosperity through Employee Motivation and Retention: A Comparative Study of Strategic HRM Practices in Malaysian Institutions, Research and Practice in Human Resource Management, 13(2), 87-104.
The business should at any point of time, prepare for plant closing and retrenchment of the employee, even if they are doing well. They can start by having a clearly defined policy about retrenchment, including being transparent and stating its benefits. Under the Employment Act, employees who have worked with the company for at least two years can request for the retrenchment benefits. The amount that is to be paid to the employee is not fixed and the employer is not compelled to do so, therefore, it would be left for the employer and employee to negotiate. However, the practice in Singapore is that for every year of service by the employee, the employer would pay one month of salary. This would reduce the possibility of the retrenched employee, bringing the case to the ministry.