Orwell warned that "Big Brother is watching you", but these days it's more likely that your employer, rather than the state, is the entity doing the watching.

John Wilson and Kieran Pender discuss the legalities around monitoring employees.

Are you under surveillance at your workplace? Wherever you work —whether at a law firm, in-house, or in government — there are laws that govern the ability of an employer to conduct surveillance of its employees. Are your work phone calls monitored, or even recorded? What about your email traffic? Does your employer know right now that you are reading this article?

These are important questions, and increasingly frequently the answer is yes. While monitoring of staff emails and website traffic is hardly novel, the pandemic-induced switch to working from home prompted a surge of interest in tech-enabled monitoring of employees. It is therefore timely to recap when such surveillance is legal. What do staff need to be told before being surveilled? Are there circumstances in which surveillance is unlawful?

Ad-hoc arbitration is considered to be an innovation in contemporary arbitration regimes. As a product of innovation to facilitate dispute settlement in cross-border commercial disputes, it has seen raving support and criticisms. This paper highlights the salient features of ad-hoc arbitration and how it works to resolve disputes expeditiously for both disputing parties. The advantages of ad-hoc arbitration are the prime motivation that has witnessed positive adoption in many major jurisdictions. However, it has seen several barriers in China in view of China's arbitration law which does not permit such innovation. Legal issues will be examined with selected case studies to accentuate the justification or otherwise of ad-hoc arbitration in current cross-border global trade and business relationships. The move towards economic integration has seen different responses in the Chinese arbitration community at domestic fronts, and the international arbitration community has active dealings with foreign partners in many cross-border dealings. A line should be drawn between adopting and implementing ad-hoc arbitration for interested parties. In the final synthesis, the research paper will present crucial findings on the justification for ad-hoc arbitration as a modern resolution tool for adoption and implementation towards global economic sustainability and integration.

According to the United Nations Department of Economics and Social Affairs,^[1] indigenous people ('IP') can be defined as inheritors and communities that practice unique, distinct cultures and ways of life compared to modern society due to the heavy influence of the natural environment. About 500 million IP live in 90 countries, including Canada, Australia and Malaysia.^[2] Locally, the numerous reported tribes include Negrito, Senoi and Proto-Malays and at present, their total population only comprises 0.7% of the entire Malaysia. Historically, they have been under constant marginalisation (politically and economically) and violation of rights by the State government or corporate companies worldwide for various reasons. For example, the Kenyah people along the Baram River face multiple obstacles in the form of land clearing, illegal logging and oil palm plantations. Similar situations and predicaments are also encountered by indigenous communities of Penan, Iban and Kayan, where the national park's hydroelectric dam building proposal and gazettement threaten their traditional lifestyle. Nevertheless, adequate laws and regulations in Malaysia, including existing international policies, can be utilised as tools to assist the indigenous communities and protect their rights.

The Federal Court in Wiramuda (M) Sdn Bhd v. Ketua Pengarah Hasil Dalam Negeri [2023] 8 CLJ 21 delivered a landmark ruling to declare as unconstitutional and strike down s. 4C of the Income Tax Act 1967 (“the Act”).

That provision permitted the taxation of compensation for the compulsory acquisition of land.

By the Wiramuda decision, the Director General of Inland Revenue can no longer issue notices of assessment to tax such compensation received by landowners who have had their lands compulsorily acquired by the State.

However, questions have arisen on whether the Wiramuda decision is of retrospective effect to render as invalid the decisions of the Director General of Inland Revenue to tax such compensation under s. 4C of the Act that were made before the Federal Court decision¹.

The Canadian government has presented a sustainable jobs bill intended to prepare workers for a transition to a lower-carbon economy following years of consultation and opposition from Alberta, Canada’s main fossil-fuel producing province.

Canada, the world’s fourth-largest oil producer and sixth-largest natural gas producer, has aimed for a 40 percent to 45 percent reduction in emissions by 2030 and net zero by 2050.

As many as 4.5 million Malaysians are likely to lose their jobs by 2030, if they do not improve their skills or attend reskilling and upskilling programmes with the rise of artificial intelligence (AI).

Human Resources Minister V. Sivakumar said this is based on the 2020 World Economic Forum warning that AI could cause a recession in the job market as it is already being used to automate tasks in various industries including manufacturing, healthcare and customer service.

The Employees Provident Fund yesterday explained that the pension-fund like approach of a monthly drawdown ,still under works, is for a portion of member's savings, up to a certain limit, to be converted into a monthly income.

The remaining portion can be withdrawn lump-sum.

EPF said this is needed to prevent old-age poverty and for consumption smoothing during retirement.

The process of formalising the proposed monthly withdrawal mechanism is still being studied and will take into account the ability and readiness of members to make such transition.

The EPF has been encouraging members to voluntarily shift to regular monthly payout rather than lump-sum withdrawals.