Court Awards Ex-HR Head RM191,530 After Dairy Company GM's Attitude Forced Her To Resign
She was given an ultimatum: resign or be sacked without pay.
By Sadho Ram — 07 Jun 2024, 03:02 PM
The Industrial Court has ruled that a former employee at Petaling Jaya Dairy Sdn Bhd was forced to resign by the company's ex-general manager after being told to resign or be sacked without pay
The Industrial Court Chairperson, D Paramalingam, in a ruling dated 29 May, determined that Nizatul Asmar Che Umar, the former head of the human resources at Petaling Jaya Dairy, owned by French dairy giant BSA International, was given the ultimatum by Henry Ong Ewe Teow, the company's former general manager.
"Nizatul was not given an opportunity to consider whether she wanted to resign or not. Instead, she was given an ultimatum to resign or be sacked without being paid her salaries that she was lawfully entitled to under her employment contract," Paramalingam wrote in the award sighted by SAYS.
During a two-day trial that took place in January this year, the court found that while Nizatul initially had a cordial working relationship with Ong, the situation soured when she brought up the employees' complaints against how they were being treated by Ong at the workplace.
"He started to become upset with Nizatul for bringing up the employees' complaints to him [...] and began treating her unreasonably by being aloof, rude, and belittling her in front of the other staff.
"She had explained that due to the increase in employee resignations, she could not turn a blind eye to the complaints and simply had to bring up the issue to arrest the problem.
"The manner [in which] he spoke to [employees], his volatile temper, and unreasonable treatment did not adhere to good industrial relations practices to ensure industrial harmony at the workplace," Paramalingam added.
According to the court, Nizatul was trying to address the numerous complaints stemming from Ong's actions, antics, frayed temper, and the inhumane treatment of the employees under his supervision
However, whenever she brought the complaints and grievances against him to his attention, he became confrontational, acted aloof towards her, and eventually became vindictive towards her.
"He started treating her in an inhumane manner in the workplace. This included belittling her, shouting at her without reason, and giving curt and rude replies at meetings and in his communications with her.
"However, nothing was done by the company despite the way Henry Ong was treating her," the award read.
"As a consequence, Nizatul was under a lot of stress and pressure as she had to deal with all the complaints against Henry Ong and at the same time, she did not want to upset him," Paramalingam said.
According to Paramalingam, the ex-general manager, as a result of being vindictive and wanting to punish Nizatul for bringing up employees' complaints against him, purposely rated her as "below expectations" in her work performance review to deprive her of the bonus and increment due to her.
The court found that Ong threatened Nizatul by stating that he intended to change the company's human resource department team in a week, and subsequently demanded that she tender her resignation immediately
She was told that if she refused to resign, he would easily replace her without any compensation.
Due to the mistreatment she endured and the stress and pressure caused by Ong, she resigned on 11 November 2022. However, he twice insisted on changes to accommodate her replacement's start date. When Nizatul reported that she was forced to resign, the company accepted her resignation without addressing her complaint, indicating their tacit agreement with Ong's actions, the court found.
"I was afraid of him. His actions and mannerisms caused me to be in a daze where I was afraid and started even questioning my own self-worth," Nizatul told the Industrial Court in her testimony.
The court found that "it is as clear as day" that Ong was in full control of how Nizatul should leave and that "he had forced her to resign and had dictated and even made notations and deletions" on three resignation letters, signifying "his authoritative role in drafting the terms of her resignation letters".
Nizatul's letter to the company, informing it that she was being forced to resign.
Image via The Industrial Court of Malaysia (Accessed by SAYS)The court also criticised the company for failing to call Ong as a witness, noting that his employment termination "remained a mystery"
The court, while questioning the testimony of the company's witness, Cheah Siow Chuan, who had replaced Nizatul, noted that when questioned about why Ong's employment as the general manager was terminated, the witness "chose to hide behind a non-disclosure agreement".
"The circumstances and reasons leading to Henry Ong's termination from his employment with the company are shrouded in absolute mystery. It would seem that the company themselves were making sure that Henry Ong did not testify before this court, for fear that it would damage their case.
"The company and Henry Ong would be mistaken to assume that should he fail to appear [...] the matter could be swept under the carpet under the pretext of a subpoenaed witness not attending court," the award read.
Ultimately, the court awarded Nizatul 14 months' back wages and one month's compensation in place of reinstatement, totalling RM241,570
However, the compensation amount was reduced by 10% due to post-dismissal earnings.
"There will also be a deduction imposed in the amount of RM43,137.50 being the salary paid by the company to Nizatul in place of the three months' notice, as can be seen from her payslip," the court ruled.
"The court awards and directs that the company pay to Nizatul a total sum of RM191,530.50."
