JUDGMENT

Wan Hamzah SCJ

The National Union of Hotel, Bar & Restaurant Workers (the Union) made a proposal to Hotel Malaya Sendirian Berhad (the Hotel Company) for a new collective agreement and suggested that there should be a single collective agreement between the Union on the one hand and the Hotel Company and the Kuala Lumpur Restaurant Sendirian Berhad (the Restaurant Company) on the other. It was contended by the Union that the Hotel Company was the real employer of the workers working with the Restaurant Company and there was sufficient functional integrality and unity of establishment between the Hotel Company and the Restaurant Company. Therefore the Union invited the Hotel Company to enter into negotiation for a single collective agreement on that basis. The Hotel Company denied that it was the employer of the workers in the restaurant of the Restaurant Company, and it did not agree to a single collective agreement and refused to negotiate unless the Union agreed to separate negotiations on the basis of separate collective agreements, one in respect of the Hotel Company and another in respect of the Restaurant Company. The Union felt that the parties had reached a deadlock