Economic Defence (Direction of Employment) Ordinance

Bill No. 8/1963

Read the first time on 28th November 1963.

An Ordinance to provide for the direction of the employment of persons adversely affected by the severance of trade relations between Malaysia and Indonesia and for matters connected therewith.

Be it enacted by the Yang di-Pertuan Negara with the advice and consent of the Legislative Assembly of Singapore, as follows: —

Short title and commencement

1. This Ordinance may be cited as the Economic Defence (Direction of Employment) Ordinance, 1963, and shall come into operation on such date as the Minister may, by notification in the Gazette, appoint.

Interpretation

2. In this Ordinance, unless the context otherwise requires —

“Director” means the Director of Economic Defence appointed under section 3 of the Economic Defence Ordinance, 1963 (Ord. of 1963), and includes any Assistant Director appointed under that Ordinance;

“employee” includes any person seeking employment;

“employer” includes any person desiring to employ other persons.

3. The Director shall keep, in such form as he may think fit, a register of persons whose employment is adversely affected by the severance of trade relations between Malaysia and Indonesia (hereinafter in this Ordinance referred to as “the Register”).

Powers of the Minister

4.—(1) The Minister may, by order published in the Gazette, direct that, after such date as may be specified in such order, an employer to whom such order applies shall not, except with the written consent of the Director, engage or re-engage any employee to whom such order applies, otherwise than from among the persons whose names appear in the Register:

Provided that before making an order under this subsection, the Minister may, in his discretion, refer for advice a draft of the order proposed to be made to a committee appointed by him, consisting of a chairman and such number of persons as he thinks fit, but shall not be bound to accept any advice given by the said committee.

(2) An order under subsection (1) of this section may be made so as to apply —

(a)	either to all employers or to such employers or class of employers as may be specified in the order; and
(b)	either to all employees or to such employees or class of employees as may be specified in the order,

and may provide that any directions contained in the order shall not apply in any specified circumstances.

(3) Any order under subsection (1) of this section may be varied or revoked by a subsequent order of the Minister published in the Gazette.

Provisions for the employment of employees from the Register

5.—(1) Every employer to whom an order made under subsection (1) of section 4 of this Ordinance applies, who desires to employ an employee or employees specified in such order shall apply to the Director, in such form as the Director may require, for the nomination from the Register of a suitable person or persons for employment by him.

(2) On receipt of the application from the employer as aforesaid, the Director shall nominate a suitable person or persons from among the persons whose names appear in the Register, and shall send him or them to the employer for employment. If any person so nominated is employed by the employer, the employer shall notify the Director in writing accordingly.

(3) If, of the persons nominated by the Director, none is acceptable to the employer or if the Director informs the employer that he is unable to make any nomination, the employer may, after obtaining the written consent of the Director, be free to employ any other person to fill the vacancy in question.

(4) If the Director refuses to give his consent to the employment of any other person in the circumstances set out in subsection (3) of this section, he shall notify the employer in writing of such refusal and his reasons therefor, and if the employer is dissatisfied with such refusal he may, within seven days of such refusal, appeal to the Appeals Board appointed under subsection (5) of this section.

(5) For the purposes of hearing appeals under this section, the Minister shall appoint an Appeals Board consisting of such number of persons as he may think fit.

(6) The decision of the Appeals Board on every appeal under this section shall be final and binding and shall not be called in question in any court.

Entry into premises and furnishing of information

6.—(1) The Director, or any public officer authorised in writing by the Director, may, for the purposes of this Ordinance, on producing, if so required, documentary evidence of his identity —

(a)	enter, at any reasonable time, any premises other than premises used solely as a dwelling;
(b)	request any person whom the Director or such public officer has reason to believe to be an employer or an employee to produce to him and to allow him to examine such documents and to furnish him such information, being documents or information in the possession or under the control of such person, as the Director or such public officer may specify.

(2) Any person who —

(a)	wilfully obstructs the Director or such public officer in the exercise of any of his powers under subsection (1) of this section;
(b)	fails to produce or furnish any document or information in accordance with the request made to him under subsection (1) of this section; or
(c)	knowingly makes any false statement for any purpose connected with this Ordinance,

shall be guilty of an offence under this Ordinance and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months, or to both such fine and imprisonment.

Power of the Director to summon any person

7.—(1) If the Director has reason to believe that any provision of this Ordinance has been contravened or if he wishes to inquire into any matter connected with the provisions of this Ordinance, he may summon any person who he has reason to believe is able to give information respecting the matter, and the person so summoned shall be legally bound to attend at the time and place specified in the summons and to answer truthfully all questions which the Director may put to him.

(2) Any person so summoned who neglects to attend as required by such summons shall be guilty of an offence under this Ordinance.

Provisions in awards for engagement or re-engagement of employees to be ineffective

8. For so long as any order made under the provisions of subsection (1) of section 4 of this Ordinance is in force in respect of any employer or employee, any provision relating to the engagement or re-engagement of any such employee as may be contained in any award made under the provisions of the Industrial Relations Ordinance, 1960 (Ord. 20 of 1960), shall have no effect.

Penalties

9.—(1) Any employer who contravenes the provisions of an order made under subsection (1) of section 4 of this Ordinance shall be guilty of an offence under this Ordinance and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding two thousand dollars, and in respect of each employee employed by him in contravention of any such provision, to a further fine not exceeding fifty dollars for each day on which that employee is so employed.

(2) Any person who is guilty of any breach of any of the provisions of this Ordinance for which no penalty is provided shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding five hundred dollars, and for a second or subsequent offence under the same section to a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars.

(3) Where, in respect of the employment of any person, there has been any contravention of the provisions of an order under subsection (1) of section 4 of this Ordinance, such person shall not, by reason only of such contravention, be deemed to be employed under an illegal contract of employment.

Regulations

10.—(1) The Minister may make regulations for carrying out the provisions of this Ordinance and for prescribing penalties for any contravention or failure to comply with any of the provisions of any regulation made under this section, but so that no such penalty shall exceed five hundred dollars.

(2) All regulations made under this section shall be published in the Gazette and shall be presented to the Legislative Assembly as soon as may be after publication.

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