High Court upholds RM780,000 awarded to sacked exec
GEORGE TOWN : The High Court here has upheld an Industrial Court's decision awarding nearly RM800,000 in back wages and compensation to a senior employee of a semiconductor firm who was wrongfully dismissed in 2018.
The High Court's decision will see Kon Siang Boon, a former global account manager at Molex (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, retaining the RM789,333.58 awarded to him by the Industrial Court last year.
The High Court also ordered the company to pay RM7,500 in costs.
Justice Anand Ponnudurai, in his ruling today, said there was no error of law in the Industrial Court's findings, and that the court had rightfully preferred Kon's version of events over the company's, based on the credibility of witnesses.
Kon, who had been attached with the company for nearly 30 years, was accused of making fraudulent claims while on a business trip, which Molex claimed breached company policy, and was subsequently sacked in 2018 after a domestic inquiry.
The Industrial Court, however, found the dismissal unjustified and procedurally flawed.
At the time of his dismissal, he was earning over RM21,000 a month, with bonuses and allowances.
According to the facts of the case, from 2016 to November 2017, Kon submitted meal and transport claims under the prevailing company travel policy, which were all approved by his superiors.
Molex revised this policy on Nov 1, 2017, to bar meal claims.
However, the Industrial Court found that this revised policy had not been clearly communicated to Kon. The court accepted Kon's testimony that he only became aware of the new rules in December 2017 and had stopped making such claims after that.
In delivering his ruling, Anand said the Industrial Court's decision was reasonable and backed by detailed analysis.
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