(1) This Act may be cited as the Industrial Relations Act 1967.

(2) (Omitted).

In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires—

“award” means an award made by the Court in respect of any trade dispute or matter referred to it or any decision or order made by it under this Act;

“Board” means the Board of Inquiry appointed under Part VIII;

“Chairman” means the Chairman of a division of the Court constituted under section 23;

“collective agreement” means an agreement in writing concluded between an employer or a trade union of employers on the one hand and a trade union of workmen on the other relating to the terms and conditions of employment and work of workmen or concerning relations between such parties;

“collective bargaining” means negotiating with a view to the conclusion of a collective agreement;

“Committee” means the Committee of Investigation appointed under Part VIII;

“contract of employment” means any agreement, whether oral or in writing and whether express or implied, whereby one person agrees to employ another as a workman and that other agrees to serve his employer as a workman;

“Court” means the Industrial Court appointed under Part VII and includes, unless the contrary intention appears, any Court under section 22 constituted for the purpose of dealing with any trade dispute or matter referred to it, and any division thereof;

“Director General” means the Director General for Industrial Relations and includes any other officer acting on his behalf;

“Director General of Trade Unions” means the Director General of Trade Unions appointed under section 3 of the Trade Unions Act 1959 [Act 262];

“Division” means a Division of the Court as constituted under section 23;

“employer” means any person or body of persons, whether corporate or unincorporate, who employs a workman under a contract of employment, and includes the Government and any statutory authority, unless otherwise expressly stated in this Act;

“essential service” means any service specified in the First Schedule;

“government” means the Federal Government or the Government of a State;

“industry” means any business, trade, undertaking, manufacture or calling of employers, and includes any calling, service, employment, handicraft or industrial occupation or avocation of workmen;

“injury” includes injury to a person in respect of his business, occupation, employment or other source of income and any actionable wrong;

“intimidate” means to cause in the mind of a person a reasonable apprehension of injury to him or to any member of his family or to any of his dependants, or of violence or damage to any person or property;

“lock-out” means—

• (a) the closing of a place of employment; or

• (b) the suspension of work; or

• (c) the refusal by an employer to continue to employ any number of workmen employed by him,

in furtherance of a trade dispute, done with a view to compelling those workmen to accept terms or conditions of or affecting employment;

“maliciously” means the doing of a wrongful act intentionally without just cause or excuse, whether or not in furtherance of a trade dispute;

“Minister” means the Minister charged with the responsibility for human resources;

“officer of a trade union” means “officer” as defined under any written law relating to the registration of trade unions;

“party”, with reference to a trade dispute, means a trade union of workmen acting for all or any number of its members in the trade dispute, or an employer acting for himself in the trade dispute, or a trade union of employers acting for all or any number of its members in the trade dispute;

“prescribed” means prescribed by regulations made under this Act;

“President” means the President of the Court appointed under this Act;

“public health service” means any medical or health service and includes any hospital, clinic, sanatorium or other related institution for the care of the sick or any system of public conservancy or sanitation;

“Registrar” means the Registrar of the Court appointed under this Act and includes a Deputy Registrar and an Assistant Registrar;

“statutory authority” means an authority or body established, appointed or constituted by any written law, and includes any local authority;

“strike” means the cessation of work by a body of workmen acting in combination, or a concerted refusal or a refusal under a common understanding of a number of workmen to continue to work or to accept employment, and includes any act or omission by a body of workmen acting in combination or under a common understanding, which is intended to or does result in any limitation, restriction, reduction or cessation of or dilatoriness in the performance or execution of the whole or any part of the duties connected with their employment;

“trade dispute” means any dispute between an employer and his workmen which is connected with the employment or non-employment or the terms of employment or the conditions of work of any such workmen;

“trade union” means any trade union registered under any law relating to the registration of trade unions;

“workman” means any person, including an apprentice, employed by an employer under a contract of employment to work for hire or reward and for the purposes of any proceedings in relation to a trade dispute includes any such person who has been dismissed, discharged or retrenched in connection with or as a consequence of that dispute or whose dismissal, discharge or retrenchment has led to that dispute.

(1) The Yang di-Pertuan Agong shall appoint a Director General for Industrial Relations who shall have the general direction, control, and supervision of all matters relating to industrial relations.

(2) The Yang di-Pertuan Agong—

• (a) shall appoint a Deputy Director General for Industrial Relations; and

• (b) may appoint such number of Directors of Industrial Relations, Principal Assistant Directors of Industrial Relations, Assistant Directors of Industrial Relations and Industrial Relations Officers as he considers necessary or expedient for the purposes of carrying out and giving effect to the provisions of this Act.

(2A) The persons appointed under subsections (1) and (2) shall be persons from the Industrial Relations Officers Scheme of Service and such appointments shall be published in the Gazette.

(3) The Director General shall, in addition to the powers, duties and functions conferred on him under this Act, exercise such other powers, discharge such other duties and perform such other functions as may be necessary or expedient for the purposes of carrying out and giving effect to the provisions of this Act.

(4) Subject to such limitations, if any, as may be prescribed, an officer appointed under subsection (2) shall exercise all the powers, discharge all the duties and perform all the functions of the Director General under this Act, and every power so exercised, duty so discharged and function so performed shall be deemed to have been duly exercised, discharged and performed for the purposes of this Act.

All officers appointed under section 2a shall be deemed to be public servants for the purposes of the Penal Code [Act 574].