Black and White

Written contract is very important to prevent any party in the agreement to break the promise. Any written contract which has the signature of all participating parties contains the power of law and can be used to sue the party who breaks the contract. A contract is used to protect one's benefit. Without a contract, one's benefit can be threaten if someday the offeror do not comply his or her promise and give the reward.

Long time ago, one of my friends got the offer from a lecturer in campus to be a research officer. My friend started to work on October 2008 and had been promised with the salary of RM 2800 per month including Employees Provident Fund (EPF) as well as free master courses. The lecturer did not provide the offer letter for my friend and there was no any black-and-white contract between them, so they only had the oral agreement. After my friend had worked for 4 months, he did not get any payment. He asked the lecturer for the payment, the lecturer said that the financial department had not yet approve the research fund for him. After the fund was approved, the lecturer told my friend that his post of research officer had not yet been approved by Human Resource (HR) department, thus he could not get the salary. Finally the lecturer gave my friend an offer letter that approved him as a true research officer but the salary reduced to RM 2300 per month including EPF and the payment started from December 2008. My friend could not argue with the HR department because he did not sign any contract to prove his statements. As a result, my friend lost his 2-months salary and the monthly salary was greatly lower than the amount promised before by the lecturer. Regarding to this case, the contract plays a very important role in protecting one's benefit.

Last time during my holiday, I stayed in Cyberjaya in order to do part-time in a Panasonic company. I joined the company due to hearing from my friend that there was a high payment for a part-timer, it was RM 100 per day. Unfortunately, the company did not want to hire any part-timer during the moment I went to interview for the job. They suggested me to join as an intern with a low allowance like those students who were having their industrial training in the company. The allowance was only RM 550 per month. Of course I was not satisfactory with the payment because I was not doing my industrial training since I had done it before. After the interview, I told them that I wanted to thought over it for a few days. I found out that other companies in Cyberjaya did not hire part-timer too. I was compulsory to stay in Cyberjaya because my rental must be paid for every month and I had a long holiday. Actually I planned to temporarily do the part-time job and searched for other job, so I phoned to the Human Resource (HR) department in order to inform them that I accepted the job. She asked me to come to the office in order to sign a contract. The contract bounded me for 3 months to be a part-time employee in the company. I could not simply run away within the contract period.

I told my case to my relative, he told me that it was not necessary to sign any contract to be a part-timer so that could run away if unhappy with the job. I was not sure whether it was a right action. The contract was used to protect both of my benefit and the company's benefit. The company could not allow me to run away from my job anytime while I was doing their projects. Besides, I surely had the certain amount of payment for every month. After a month, they raised my payment to RM 1000 per month due to my good performance. It was out of my expectation. I had to sign a new contract in order to prove the payment and for future argument. After my 3-months contract ended, they told me that there was a new part-time principle and would pay me RM 9 per hour depending on my working hours. I accepted the offer and continued my job until my holiday ended.

In conclusion, a contract is important for any deal and either an employer or employee. Without a contract, the wicked employer can choose not to pay for you since you have nothing to prove and cannot sue him too. To protect your benefit, a contract must be signed before you work for your employer.