Federal Court rejects bid to overturn RM1mil constructive dismissal award

A three-member Federal Court bench today refused Wong Forklift Hire & Services Sdn Bhd leave to appeal against a Court of Appeal decision that upheld the award.

PUTRAJAYA: A family-run company has failed in its final bid to overturn an Industrial Court award of about RM1 million to a manager who was found to have been constructively dismissed after challenging his late father’s will.

A three-member Federal Court bench, chaired by Justice Rhodzariah Bujang, today refused Wong Forklift Hire & Services Sdn Bhd leave to appeal against a Court of Appeal decision that upheld the award.

Leave to appeal is granted only in cases involving novel constitutional or legal questions of public importance.

Rhodzariah, who sat with Justices Ahmad Terrirudin Salleh and Nazlan Ghazali, also ordered the company to pay former manager Wong Jun Kiat RM50,000 in costs.

Lawyers Jonathan Khaw and Khang Zhi Han appeared for the company, while Justin Chin represented Wong.

In January, the Court of Appeal upheld the High Court’s dismissal of the company’s judicial review application to quash the Industrial Court award.

High Court judge Hayatul Akmal Abdul Aziz ruled that the Industrial Court had correctly found that Wong had been constructively dismissed after the company cut his salary, withheld his wages for February and March 2019, failed to remit EPF and Socso contributions, and left him without work.

Industrial Court chairman D Paramalingam found that Wong’s stepmother, company director Sim Foo Yoke, reduced his salary seven months after his father’s death.

The pay cut took effect in October 2018, the same month Wong filed a suit at the Shah Alam High Court to challenge his father’s will.

Paramalingam found that the salary reduction – from about RM27,500 a month to RM9,000 and later RM6,000 – was in retaliation for filing the suit and amounted to a fundamental breach of Wong’s employment contract.

He also found that Wong had acted promptly by demanding the restoration of his salary after being unpaid for two months, but the company failed to comply.

Paramalingam ruled that reinstatement was inappropriate as the dispute had irretrievably damaged the employment and family relationship.

He awarded Wong RM550,000 in compensation in lieu of reinstatement and RM660,000 in back wages, less RM198,000 for post-dismissal earnings.