Court orders UiTM subsidiary to pay ex-director RM497k for wrongful dismissal

A Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) subsidiary has been ordered to pay an ex-director close to half a million ringgit for wrongful termination.

The Industrial Court in Penang ruled that UiTM Energy was in the wrong when it terminated Noor Hasnol Osman’s contract 19 months before it was due to end.

According to the judgment delivered on Jan 29, Hasnol had been employed with the company since 2018 on a fixed-term contract.

His contract was renewed in late 2021, with his time at UiTM Energy extended from Jan 1, 2022, to Dec 31, 2023.

However, just five months into 2022, he was dismissed from the company.

At the time of his dismissal, he was the company’s director and head of project delivery, with his last drawn salary at RM29,170.

According to the court document, UiTM Energy had justified the dismissal as being part of a restructuring exercise to help cope with the economic situation at the time.

However, Hasnol argued that the company had failed to give a proper explanation as to why he was the only employee to be retrenched.

He also claimed that the RM57,540 paid to him as a termination benefit was only received under protest, and was both illegal and unfair to him.

‘Unfair labour practice’

In his ruling, Penang Industrial Court chairperson Jeyaseelen Anthony ruled that the company had failed to prove that Hasnol’s role had been made redundant or ceased to exist.

“Based on the totality of the evidence presented before this court, this court has no alternative but to hold that the retrenchment of the claimant was a colourable exercise of the company’s managerial power, which is tainted with mala fide and was actuated by victimisation and unfair labour practice.

“On that account, the company’s action in terminating the contract of the claimant prematurely is clearly a breach of the jealously guarded principle of security of tenure of employment,” he said in his written judgment.

He also ruled that UiTM Energy had failed to prove there was a genuine need to carry out a redundancy exercise.

The court then awarded Hasnol 19 months’ backpay for the remaining period of his fixed-term contract, which totalled RM554,230.

After deducting the RM57,540 paid to him as a termination benefit, the final award to Noor Hasnol was RM496,689.

The court ordered UiTM Energy to pay Hasnol within 30 days of the award. - Mkini