The court upheld the company's decision to dismiss employees as a bona fide exercise of managerial discretion during organizational restructuring and affirmed that redundancy must reflect genuine business needs.

Reihana Abd Razak:

Reference

[1] This is a reference by the Honourable Minister of Human Resources made under s 20(3) of the Industrial Relations Act 1967 (Act 177) arising out of the dismissal of Wong Choy Pheng, Low Chin Kiong, Loh Puck Soon and Geraldine Rema Varathau Rajoo ("The Claimants") by Taylor's University Sdn Bhd ("The Company").

[2] Vide Award No 19 of 2021 dated 4 January 2021, Case No: 6(15)(11)/4-681/20 Wong Choy Pheng; 11/4-682/20 Low Chin Kiong; 12/4-916/20 Loh Puck Soon and 14/4-1434/20 Geraldine Rema a/p Varathau Rajoo all against Taylor's University Sdn Bhd were consolidated and heard together.

The Claimants' Case

Claimant No 1 - Wong Choy Pheng

[3] The claimant's pleaded case is as in her Statement of Case listing her employment history with the company and her job descriptions.

[4] The claimant commenced employment with the company as a Counsellor on 1 September 1999 and held several positions within the company.

[5] Vide letter dated 31 March 2010, the claimant then resigned as Senior Administration Executive and vide Letter of Offer dated 31 July 2013, the company offered her a position as Assistant Manager International Office which she accepted.

[6] The claimant asserts that vide letter dated 28 January 2016, she was promoted to the position of Manager International Office with a monthly salary of RM7,187.00.

[7] The claimant avers that the company handed a Notice of Redundancy dated 27 September 2019 to her where in the notice the company informed her that as a result of the change in economic landscape in the education history, the company decided to reorganise its operations for sustainability and cost efficiency where her position as Manager of International Office Department became redundant and her last day of employment is 31 December 2019.

[8] The claimant asserts that on 17 October 2019, she had a meeting with the company's Chief Marketing Officer, one Ben Foo, to seek clarification of the company's selection to terminate her from the employment, low compensation and to show the evidence of her work performance during her employment.

[9] The claimant asserts that the company then served on her another Notice of Redundancy dated 17 October 2019 with a revised compensation of RM53,439.48 and a subsequent revised Notice of Redundancy dated 1 November 2019 where the company had revised the compensation to RM70,870.22 and the last day of employment is 31 October 2019.

[10] The claimant asserts that she signed all the three Notice of Redundancy under protest as the reason given by the company for her redundancy was unacceptable and unfair to her.

[11] The claimant asserts that the International Office Department which was under her purview is a crucial department that handles all of the applications for new and renewal of student passes where only an experienced employee is required to handle or oversee its operations.

[12] The claimant contended that as the applications from the international students have been increasing since the year 2013 to 2019, her position as the Manager of International Office Department is crucial.

[13] The claimant contended that her job functions and duties continued to exist at the time and after she was dismissed they were taken over by other employees of the company namely one Angeline Chan, Zalina, Yus and Jacey.

[14] The claimant asserts that the company was not in any financial problem as it was still hiring new employees prior to her termination.

[15] The claimant asserts that due to the increasing numbers of international students, the current employees were unable to cope with the increased workload, the company hired three new full-time staff for her department made within the year 2017 to 2019.

[16] The claimant avers that the Director of International Office Department one Leonard Lim had also given approval to her to hire two contract employees to assist in her department due to the increased number of new international student and renewal applications.

[17] The claima