Announcement

Industrial Court Upholds Dismissal of Employee Who Submits “No Case to Answer”

Share:

Print
Ms Nur Elissa Baharudin and Syazwani Suhaimy, from ZUL RAFIQUE & partners’ Employment & Industrial Relations team, succeeded in defending Tenaga Nasional Berhad (‘the Company’) in an unfair dismissal claim in the case of Umar bin Abdullah v Tenaga Nasional Berhad. The Claimant was a technician of the Company and was charged for misconduct relating to taking and receiving monies from the Customer without the Company’s permission and causing direct electrical connections without a meter without the Company’s permission. 

In this case, the Industrial Court found that the Claimant, in the light of his stand of no case to answer had chosen to abandon the issues raised in his pleadings, as he did not produce any witnesses nor give any evidence to substantiate his case. The Claimant’s written submission also made no mention of and had not addressed all the explanations, defences and statements made in his pleadings prior to the written submission.

On the Issue of Domestic Inquiry (DI), the Court held that the DI proceeding is valid and not against the principles of Natural Justice since the Claimant was represented at the DI. His claim that he was not informed nor reminded to call witnesses for the DI had very little weight to it. 

Thus, Industrial Court held that the Company had established, on a balance of probabilities, the appropriateness of the Company’s action against the Claimant and that it was unreasonable to expect the Company to have continued the Claimant’s employment.

For more insight into this area of law, please contact our Partners in Employment & Industrial Relations Practice Group: