Gave a talk at the "Employment Law & HR Management Master Class", 9th Oct 2012

Me and Bernard Ong

Me and Stephanie (the usher)

One of the funny powerpoint slides

Last Tuesday, I gave a talk at a seminar called “Employment Law & HR Management Master Class”. It was held at Hotel Istana, Kuala Lumpur. I spoke on “The HR Function: Understanding Legal Obligations and Boundaries”, a topic which was picked by the organisers, Crown Leadership which is based in Singapore.

In return for giving the talk, Crown Leadership gave me a complimentary pass entitled me to invite a guest to attend the full two days seminar. I invited my old friend, Bernard Ong to attend. He told me he found the seminar useful and he learned a few new things plus he made a few friends as well. The size of the seminar was rather small - about 15 to 18 people. However, we have got a very active group, asking a lot of questions. In this particular seminar, I did not give any handouts. I gave a powerpoint presentation that contained only pictures - nothing else. I started the talk by telling a story which was related to employment issues. As I went along, I showed the slides. Some of the slides were pretty amusing which got the whole class laughing. I guess when you are giving a talk at 9.00am, it would be wise to tickle their funny bone, otherwise the class would be rather slow and quiet. All in all, it was fun.

Mock Mediation at the 8th National Employment Law Conference 2012

Wong Lu Peen giving an excellent presentation on Mediation

The Role Players

Role Play in progress

One of the hardworking people behind the scene, Amirah from MySeminars

I just got back from doing a role play (mock Mediation) dealing with sexual harassment at the 8^th National Employment Law Conference 2012 held at the Swiss Garden Hotel & Residences (27^th June 2012). The conference was held at the new wing of the Swiss Garden Residences which looked really nice and classy. The conference was organized by MySeminars. The organizing team was headed by Amirah Alkaff (I do apologize as I have forgotten to take a photo of her for the blog!) who had done a splendid job in getting more than 100 participants.

I was there rather early as I wanted to give the morning traffic a miss and it could also be a real challenge to find a parking space at Swiss Garden. Being early, I decided to go for the buffet breakfast at Level 6 of the Swiss Garden Residences. If you ever have the chance of having breakfast there, I would strongly recommend their “nasi lemak”, especially the “sambal” which is close to excellent. They also served pretty good coffee at the buffet breakfast. As for their egg station, I must comment that their omelette is one of the smallest omelette I have ever seen. I think they should use more eggs and add more ingredients!

The morning started with a presentation by my fellow Mediator and a good friend, Wong Lu Peen. She did a great job in introducing Mediation and talking about conflict management in the workplace. Lu Peen also took the opportunity to promote the Malaysian Mediation Centre and my book, “Mediation Skills and Techniques” at the Conference. Thank you, Lu Peen.

Immediately after Lu Peen’s presentation, we did the role play or “mock Mediation” called “Way to go, baby”. I played the role of Harry, the alleged sexual harasser while my other fellow mediators, Sumathi Murugiah played Sally, the victim and Tejindar Kaur played the role of the Mediator. Even though, we had the script but we made up our lines as we go along. Apart from making the role play educational, we also wanted it to be entertaining as well. There were a few laughs coming from the participants. I believe the participants enjoyed the role play. As this role play dealt with sexual harassment, I wanted to conduct a small test to see if the participants could trigger if I slipped in an innuendo or two. At the end of the role play, I told Sally (Sumathi Murugiah), “We have worked very well “hand in hand” with each other for the last 15 years”. Immediately when the participants heard “hand in hand”, there was laughter as those words immediately triggered the participants’ imagination.

The Conference was a good one and well attended. Congratulations to Amirah Alkaff, the other Amirah (whom unfortunately I did not get the rest of her name) and all the other team members in organizing a splendid Conference!

Malaysian Labour Law Conference 2012

Sumitra Penesar with the guys!

The beautiful ladies from Crimson Logic!

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to participate in a conference called “Malaysian Labour Law Conference - A Union between Employments, Labour & Human Resources” organised by Crimson Logic Pte Ltd held at the Impiana Resort Hotel, Kuala Lumpur. I was invited to participate as a member of a Panel discussing about Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR), a topic called “Industrial Disputes: A Critical Analysis of the Alternate Dispute Resolution Mechanism”. Besides me, the members of the Panel were Steven Thiru (as the Moderator), Muhendaran, Vickneswaran and Y.A Tuan Rajendran Nayagam (Chairman, Industrial Court Malaysia). Steven, Muhendran and Vicky are well known Industrial Court lawyers. Muhendran and Vicky have regularly represented trade unions in industrial relation matters. The Panel Discussion went on really well with each Panel Member giving their respective views on ADR, specifically on Mediation and Conciliation.

The Industrial Court Chairman spoke about Mediation in the Industrial Court while Muhendran touched on certain parts of legislation that dealt with Mediation and Conciliation. Vicky enlighted us with his views on the British model in resolving industrial disputes and Steven, in his usual style moderated the discussion skillfully. He had to,  as he is  our current Bar Council Treasurer and when it comes to the Malaysian Bar’s coffer, he definitely has a sharp eye! As for me, I spoke about my experience in Mediation and some practical mediating skills. From the tone of the discussion from the Panel, I felt Members in the Panel (except for the Industrial Court Chairman and myself) were not so keen on Mediation when it comes to employment disputes. As one of the Panel Members mentioned that most of the time if the dispute is settled out of Court, it was due to private discussion between Counsels who are representing their respective clients and not so much to do with the Mediator. Well, like mentioned in my book, the number one objective in any Mediation is to get parties to communicate. Therefore, if the parties are able to communicate with each other without the Mediator, then they are in good footing in getting the dispute resolved. If the Mediator comes in, it would be just to facilitate to get things moving in a much more efficient way.

All in all, the Conference was a good one. It was conducted in a professional manner by my good friend, Primila Edward and superbly organised by Sumitra Penesar and her team. I must also add that the buffet lunch at Impiana Resort Hotel was very good. My only complaint is that the parking at the hotel is rather narrow and cramp. If you are driving a big car, you need to be extra careful when negotiating the corners. Other than that, good job, ladies!