Guide · Work · 4 min read
If you were dismissed unfairly
Dismissal for misconduct, asking the Minister to reinstate you, and complaining to the Commissioner.
In plain English · by bruneilaws · not legal advice· Law as at 30 Sep 2026
On this page · 7 parts
The short answer
If you consider that your employer dismissed you without just cause or excuse, you may, within one month of the dismissal, make representations in writing to the Minister to be reinstated in your former employment.
If your employer dismissed you for misconduct, the Commissioner may inquire into that decision and confirm it or set it aside. The Commissioner can do so only if you complained within 30 days from the date your employer communicated the decision to you, orally or in writing.
Who these rules cover
The Employment Act's definition of an employee does not include a seaman, a domestic worker, or a person employed in a managerial, executive or confidential position.
Dismissal for misconduct
After due inquiry, an employer may dismiss an employee without notice for misconduct inconsistent with the fulfilment of the express or implied conditions of their service. Instead of dismissing the employee, the employer may instantly downgrade them, or instantly suspend them from work without salary for up to one week.
For the inquiry, your employer may suspend you from work for up to one week, but has to pay you at least half your salary for that time.
If the inquiry does not show any misconduct on your part, your employer has to restore to you at once the full amount of the salary withheld.
Asking the Minister to reinstate you
Before deciding on your representations, the Minister may ask the Commissioner in writing to inquire into the dismissal and report whether it was without just cause or excuse.
If, after considering the Commissioner's report, the Minister is satisfied that you were dismissed without just cause or excuse, the Minister may direct your employer either to reinstate you and pay you the salary you would have earned had you not been dismissed, or to pay you the compensation the Minister decides.
The Minister's decision on your representations is final and cannot be challenged in any court.
A direction of the Minister bars any action by you for damages in any court for the wrongful dismissal.
An employer who fails to comply with the Minister's direction is guilty of an offence and liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $5,000, imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year, or both.
Complaining to the Commissioner
If the Commissioner sets aside your employer's decision to dismiss you for misconduct, the order against your employer is limited to compensation in place of notice and the other payments you would be entitled to as if you had committed no misconduct.
To start, you present a written statement to the Commissioner, or make a statement in person, setting out your complaint and the remedy you seek. The Commissioner then examines you on oath and records the substance of your statement.
These complaint rules apply to all workmen, and to other employees whose salary, not counting overtime, bonus payments, annual salary supplements, productivity incentive payments and allowances, is not more than $3,000 a month or another amount the Minister prescribes.
Other protections
No employer can, without reasonable grounds, terminate the contract of service of a local employee for the purpose of employing an immigrant employee.
Subject to the provisions of the Part it belongs to, when a female employee is absent from work in accordance with that Part, her employer cannot lawfully give her notice of dismissal during her absence, or notice that would expire during her absence.
A notice of dismissal given without sufficient cause within 3 months before a female employee's confinement does not deprive her of any payment under that Part that, but for the notice, she would have been entitled to, or would have become entitled to on or before the date of her confinement. A question about whether the notice had sufficient cause is referred to the Minister within 2 months from the date of her confinement.
An employee who has been in continuous service with an employer for less than 5 years is not entitled to any retrenchment benefit when the employer ends their service on the ground of redundancy or a re-organisation of its profession, business, trade or work.
Your pay when you are dismissed
Subject to the Act, the salary and any other sum due to you when you are dismissed have to be paid on the day of the dismissal or, if that is not possible, within 3 days after it, not counting rest days and public holidays.
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