PART XVI
PROCEDURE AND REGULATIONS
127. For the purposes of this Act and of the Penal Code (Cap. 224), the Commissioner and all other officers appointed or acting under this Act shall be deemed to be public servants within the meaning of the Penal Code.
128. For the purposes of section 18 of the Miscellaneous Offences (Public Order and Nuisance) Act (Cap. 184), every place of employment shall be deemed to be a public place.
129.
—(1) Subject to any special provision to the contrary in this Act, all convictions and penalties for offences under this Act may be had and recovered before a Magistrate’s Court or a District Court on complaint by any person aggrieved or by the Commissioner or any person authorised by him in that behalf.
(2) A Magistrate’s Court or a District Court may, notwithstanding anything in the Criminal Procedure Code (Cap. 68), impose the full punishment prescribed by this Act, excepting that a Magistrate’s Court shall not impose a sentence of imprisonment exceeding 12 months.
130. The Commissioner and any officer authorised by him in writing shall have the right to appear and be heard before a Magistrate’s Court or a District Court in any proceedings under this Act and shall also have the right to be heard before those Courts in any prosecution under Chapter XVI of the Penal Code (Cap. 224) instituted by him in accordance with section 125.
131. In all proceedings under Part XV, the onus of proving that he is not the employer or the person whose duty it is under this Act to do or abstain from doing anything shall be on the person who alleges that he is not the employer or other person, as the case may be.
132. Nothing in this Act shall operate to prevent any employer or employee from enforcing his respective civil rights and remedies for any breach or non-performance of a contract of service by any suit in court in any case in which proceedings are not instituted, or, if instituted, are not proceeded with to judgment under this Act.
133. Where the Commissioner or any officer performing the duties or exercising the powers conferred on the Commissioner has, for the purpose of inquiring into any matter under this Act, taken down any evidence or made any memorandum and is prevented by death, transfer or other cause from concluding the inquiry, any successor to the Commissioner or other officer may deal with the evidence or memorandum as if he had taken it down or made it and proceed with the inquiry from the stage at which his predecessor left it.
134. When under this Act any court imposes a fine or enforces the payment of any sum secured by a recognizance or bond, the court may, if it thinks fit, direct that the whole or any part of the fine or sum when recovered be paid to the party complaining, or where the offence was committed by an employer in respect of a liability to pay money to an employee, that employee.
[36/95]
135. Subject to any special provision to the contrary in this Act, from and after the determination of any imprisonment suffered under this Act for non-payment of the amount of any fine, compensation or damages, with the costs assessed and directed to be paid by any order of court, the amount so ordered shall be deemed to be liquidated and discharged, and the order shall be annulled.
136. In the event of any employer being subjected to any fine or penalty under the provisions of this Act, the fine or penalty may, in addition to any other means of recovery, be recovered by distress and sale of the place of employment, or of any property belonging to him and in such place of employment.
137.
—(1) Any requisition issued under section 98 or 99 or any summons issued under section 116, 119 or 124 may be served on any person —
(a)
by delivering it to the person or to some adult member of his family at his last known place of residence;
(b)
by leaving it at or sending it by registered post to his usual or last known place of residence or business in an envelope addressed to the person; or
(c)
where the person is a body of persons or a body corporate —
(i)
by delivering it to the director, manager, secretary or other like officer of the body of persons or body corporate at its registered office or principal place of business; or
(ii)
by sending it by registered post addressed to the body of persons or body corporate at its registered office or principal place of business.
[32/2008]
(2) Any requisition or summons sent by registered post to any person in accordance with subsection (1) shall be deemed to be duly served on the person at the time when the requisition or summons, as the case may be, would in the ordinary course of post be delivered and, in proving service of the requisition or summons, it shall be sufficient to prove that the envelope containing the requisition or summons, as the case may be, was properly addressed, stamped and posted by registered post.
[32/2008]
Power to make reciprocal provisions with Malaysia for the service, execution and enforcement of summonses, warrants and orders
138. If the Minister is satisfied that arrangements have been or will be made under any legislation in force in Malaysia for the service, execution or enforcement in Malaysia of summonses, warrants or orders issued or made under this Act, he may, by regulations made under this Act —
(a)
prescribe the procedure for sending such summonses, warrants and orders to Malaysia for service, execution or enforcement and specify the conditions under which any such summons shall be deemed to have been served; and
(b)
make reciprocal provisions for the service, execution or enforcement in Singapore of summonses, warrants or orders issued or made in Malaysia under any corresponding or similar legislation in force there.
139.
—(1) The Minister may, in addition to the powers expressly conferred by any other provisions of this Act, make regulations for carrying out the purposes of this Act.
(2) In particular and without prejudice to the generality of subsection (1), such regulations may —
(a)
prescribe the circumstances and conditions under which females may be employed as workmen;
(b)
require registers and records to be maintained and prescribe the form and contents thereof and the manner in which they shall be displayed;
(c)
regulate the method of collecting statistics either in connection with or independently of any other public department, the staff to be employed in connection therewith, the duties to be performed and the publications, if any, to be issued;
(d)
prescribe the forms and manner in which and the times and places at which particulars or information shall be furnished, and the manner in which the same shall be authenticated, and any other thing which under this Act is required to be prescribed;
(e)
exempt from the obligation to furnish particulars or information under this Act, either wholly or to the prescribed extent, and either unconditionally or subject to the prescribed conditions, any employer or class of employers;
(f)
prescribe the form of register to be kept under section 29 and the forms of orders to be made under sections 115 and 119;
(g)
prescribe the fees payable for copies of notes of evidence and decisions recorded under section 119(1)(j);
(h)
prescribe penalties for any contravention of the provisions of the regulations made under this section; except that no such penalty shall exceed $5,000 in the case of a first offence or $10,000 in the case of a second or subsequent offence under the same regulation within one year.
[21/84; 32/2008]
(3) All regulations made under this Act shall be published in the Gazette and shall be presented to Parliament as soon as possible after publication.