UPDATED @ 12:39:26 PM 09-03-2012
March 09, 2012
KUALA LUMPUR, March 9 — The High Court today awarded tycoon Tan Sri Tajudin Ramli’s sister-in-law 36 months’ salary in compensation from his former flagship firm Naluri Corporation Berhad despite resigning from her job.
Based on her last-drawn salary, she will receive at least RM720,000 in back pay. The court will make an assessment to determine the final amount she will get.
The court ruled in favour of Datin Rizana Mohamad Daud who claimed she was entitled to a sum worth RM1.47 million after quitting her position as head of legal and corporate secretarial on January 14, 2005 with three months’ notice.
“The fact that she is the wife of a director and the chairman of the company is her brother-in-law has no relevance to enforcing the terms and conditions of the contract of employment,” trial judge Datuk V.T. Singham said.
Rizana, who was appointed to the post on August 1, 2002, had a monthly salary of RM20,000 despite having no legal qualifications.
According to the 46-year-old’s employment contract, the “cessation of employment as head of legal and corporate secretarial for any reason whatsoever ... shall entitle you to a compensation”.
“The compensation shall be a lump sum cash payment equivalent to 36 months’ total emoluments,” it said, based on her average monthly emoluments over the immediately preceding period of up to 12 months.
According to her statement of claim, the sum amounts to RM1,469,774.04.
Rizana gave three months’ notice when she tendered her resignation in a letter dated January 14, 2005.
Rizana, whose husband is Tajudin’s younger brother, Datuk Bistamam Ramli, gave three months’ notice when she tendered her resignation in a letter dated January 14, 2005.
“No, I just want to put it to rest,” she said when approached by reporters today.
Naluri had argued that the board of directors, despite being chaired by Tajudin, did not approve of her contract of employment and that such favourable terms were “unconscionable and unenforceable by law.”
Tajuddin was a protégé of Tun Daim Zainuddin, who was a close friend of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and the ex-finance minister behind the now-discredited policy of nurturing a class of Malay corporate captains on government largesse.
Although Tajuddin flew high in the 1990s he fared poorly during the 1997 Asian financial crisis. Danaharta, the state-owned company set up to handle toxic assets from the crisis, took over Naluri in December 2002.
Today, Singham said “there is absolutely no evidence of any objection by the previous board of directors who cannot plead lack of knowledge of the plaintiff’s salary and benefits she was receiving.”
“It is only when the plaintiff had filed this claim in court [that] the board of directors... woke up from their seat and as an afterthought and desperate attempt to unlawfully deny the plaintiff’s claim,” he said in his judgment.
He ordered Naluri to pay Rizana the 36 months’ emoluments, which needs to be assessed with eight per cent interest from the end of her resignation notice up to today and four per cent until the whole amount is paid.
Danaharta and Tajudin ended their drawn-out legal battle when they settled out-of-court last month after Putrajaya had directed in August all GLCs to drop civil suits against the Tajuddin.
But the terms of the settlement remain confidential between the two parties despite a High Court decision in December 2009 for Tajudin to pay Danaharta RM589.14 million with two per cent interest per annum backdated to January 1, 2006.
The matter has put Dr Mahathir’s policies under scrutiny and the former prime minister has defended them by pointing to bigger losses under his successor Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.
Naluri was delisted from the official list of Bursa Securities on May 28, 2008.
According to the 2002 Naluri Berhad annual report, Tajudin was the firm’s chairman at the time of Rizana’s resignation. He was also once executive chairman of Malaysia Airlines and a former owner of Celcom, a cellular service operator.
Bistamam was also a director at the time. They have both since left the company.
Naluri was also among the 38 companies and individuals in a slew of multi-million ringgit suits and counter-suits involving Tajuddin.
Currently, the poster boy of Dr Mahathir’s plan to groom Bumiputera entrepreneurs is the chairman of IT company Edaran Bhd, in which Bistamam serves as managing director and chief executive officer. Rizana is also on board as the company secretary.
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