Do employers have the right to deny the medical expenses incurred during confinement related to maternity, including abortion or miscarriage?

Employment Act 1955 does not cover any of d above-mention matter, it will all depend on d practice at your company.

D best guideline 2 refer will be d terms & conditions of appointment, the employee handbook or any policy issued by your company.
It is quite safe 2 say dat most companies do not cover such medical expenses incurred during confinement, miscarriages and abortions.
Even insurance policies purchased by companies do not normally cover them.

Most of it cover prolog illness(kesakitan berpanjanga) and death (on the way 2 work or vice versus)

At most, companies will only recognise d medical certificates that are issued by medical practioner.(Bomoh & chinese physician not certifeid loor)

Also, for those few companies that do allow such claims, only the claims for treatment from d government hospitals are normally accepted.

But 2 some HR practitioners, sometimes d voice of reason creeps in.

A normal successful labour is stressful by itself and d woman who has undergone a miscarriage or abortion is similarly traumatised, both mentally and physically.

It is indeed d odd employer that will not empathize with d person.

There are some human resource practitioners who will recommend that companies should treat such medical expenses on a case-by-case basis or we always call it "ad-hoc basis".

To summarize...

After all, they reason, do miscarriages happen so often? If it is not about medical expenses, what reasons could your company have for not assisting an employee that’s affected psychologically? It is a serious moral issue to consider.

What is abuse of leave?

What if d staff abuses his leave benefits, whether knowingly or unknowingly?

How do we treat such abuse?

D principle dat most companies adopt is dat a staff should not b taking more than his annual leave entitlement. These companies practice:
1. “earned leave” or
2. “pro-rated leave”,
meaning u can only apply 4 d annual leave dat has been earned or pro-rated. Anything above dis earned entitlement is then treated as unpaid leave. Most abuses of annual leave usually occur when a staff applies often 4 emergency leave.

Technically, as long as leave is not approved, it is considered as unlawful absence where action can be taken such as a warning and leading 2 dismissal if he is a deliberate offender.
If it happens too often, hr will have 2 study d trend and then counsel d staff accordingly. More importantly, perhaps it is an opportunity 2 review & tighten d internal leave policies & procedures.

For example,
1. Should emergency leave be treated like any annual leave application that requires the staff’s immediate supervisor to approve?
2. Should you disallow the staff from just calling up the department or worse still, sending a text message to a colleague? Dats wat most of us usually did???For medical leave, the principle is that the leave applicant is suffering from an illness that a registered medical practitioner had deemed serious enough to warrant recuperation. Unlike annual leave, however, medical leave is different as it cannot be pro-rated.
3. Irrespective of the date that the staff joined the company, he is entitled to the full entitlement at any time during a calendar year, subject to the issuance of the medical certificate by the medical practitioner. Generally, medical leave is prone to suspected abuse. If this is suspected of a particular staff, you have to study the medical leave trend.

For example,
1. How many times in a month is medical leave taken?
2. What day? Which clinic? What sickness?
3. All these will lead you to a trend and once determined, do call up the staff for a discussion about his health status or counselling.

To summarize

Any abuse can often be checked at this point without going further. On the other hand, a confirmed health problem should be given full assistance. Just remember 2 get yrselves a good insurans coverage especially dat xtra hospital benefits.

What can an employer do when a staff is frequently on sick leave?

What can an employer do when a staff is frequently on sick leave?

Human resource practitioners generally agree on these steps:

1. Fact-finding on the extent of the sickness.Staff’s medical history for the present and past years to see whether there is a pattern.

2. If necessary, you may have to talk to the clinic about the staff’s health condition. For example, you may want to know:
o Does the staff normally go to one clinic for his medical certificate or does he go to many?
o When is the medical leave usually granted? Is there a trend, such as after every weekend or public holiday? o How does the staff tell his employer about the medical leave? By contacting his supervisor directly or through friends or only when he returns to work?

3. Talk to the staff about his health.It is important at this point not to be antagonistic. As HR practitioners, concern and empathy must be shown to the staff.

4. It is also important to note that the staff may not be very forthcoming with information at the beginning, so patience must also be exercised.
o If he claims that there is nothing wrong with his health, only then do you show him the data collected and ask for a confirmation from him. You should caution him that the management is aware about the medical leave taken and would want him to change. If his attitude does not improve, you may need to assign him to a particular clinic for his medical visitations, telling him that visits to other clinics will not be recognised. Make him understand the implications of such frequent absences from work and get his agreement in writing on the conditions laid down. Have the meeting documented and served to him as evidence of such discussion and agreement. And finally, closely monitor the progress of his attendance and his behaviour.
o On the other hand, if the staff actually admits to having some health problems, you should offer to refer him to a specialist for a complete medical check-up. The medical report should determine the extent of the staff’s health condition. Most times, the staff should recover with little further intervention. Sometimes, all that may be required is to transfer the staff to another position within the company. But there will be the rare occasion when the staff may need to be medically boarded out. Many companies may be loathe to do this but this solution may be the fairest to both the company and the staff. Medically boarding out an unfit staff is a traumatic experience and the company may well have to provide counselling to the affected staff. You may be required to pay his retrenchment benefits as well as to help him apply for his SOCSO benefits.

5. To summarize:
• In an organization Effective communication is important as when you built up a case for your employee it will expose your department for others to judge and review. So managers/supervisors think twice before you commit any action.

Technorati Cosmos: other blogs commenting on this post

what is ex parte

in Jasman Saidin case the trial proceed ex parte (refer image below)


but what is ex parte?

the word derieved from Latin. or in Bahasa Malaysia,

1. Pada bahagian sebelah sahaja. Contohnya, satu ex parte injuksi adalah satu injuksi yang diberi selepas mendengar hanya pada pihak yang memohon.
2. Bagi pihak. Istilah ini digunakan pada tajuk laporan undang2 bersama dgn nama orang yg membuat permohonan kpd mahkamah dlm kes yg dipersoalkan.

To summarize

Samada plaintif atau defendant tidak hadir ke Mahkamah Buruh setelah berjuta2 kali cuba dihubungi maka keputusan mungkin berpihak pada pihak yang hadir sahaja.

So dats happened in the above said case, where the employer Hotel Istana fail to turn up to the proceeding at Labour Court.

Continue Jasman Case...part deux

The issue here

Dismissal:
(beyond reasonable doubt or dlm bahasa msia, adakah terbukti kesalahan yg dilakukan nya)
the company hereby listed 3 offences
1.Breach of company policies
2.Sexual harassment
3.Alcohol consumption

but the best part the Company failed to turn up at the Industrial Court
which an Ex-parte hearing (bicara tanpa kehadiran

Award
Whether dismissal without just cause or excuse

refer to section
ss. 20(3), 29(d) and 29(g) of Industrial Relation Act 1967

below is the intro for the case