Dismissal due to undisclosed conflicts of interest and violation of company policies constitutes just cause under industrial relations law.

The Reference

[1] This is a reference dated 25 September 2019 by Honourable Minister of Human Resources pursuant to s 20(3) of the Industiral Relations Act 1967 ("The Act") arising out of the dismissal of Ghazali Bin Abdullah ("Claimant") by FGV Plantations (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd ("Company") on the 13 February 2019.

[2] Pursuant to the directions of this Court, the parties in this matter filed their respective written submissions dated 2 September 2022 (Claimant's written submissions), 5 September 2022 (Company's written submissions), 19 September 2022 (Company's written rebuttal) and 5 October 2022 (Claimant's reply submissions).

[3] This Court considered all the notes of proceedings in this matter, documents and the cause papers in handing down this Award namely:

(i) The Claimant's Statement of Case dated 21 November 2019;

(ii) The Company's Statement In Reply dated 19 December 2019

(iii) The Claimant's Rejoinder dated 5 February 2020;

(iv) The Claimant's Bundle of Documents - CLB 1 & CLB 2;

(v) The Company's Bundle of Documents - COB1 & COB2

(vi) The Claimant's Witness Statement - CLW1 - WS (Ja'afar Bin Jonit)

(vii) The Claimant's Witness Statement - CLW2- WS (Ghazali Bin Abdullah);

(viii) Company's Witness Statement - COW1- WS (Rosman Hadi Mohamad Sayoti);

(ix) Company's Witness Statement - COW2 - WS (Haslinda Arifin).

(x) Company's Witness Statement - COW3 - WS (Mazri Abdul Rahim)

Introduction

[4] The dispute before this Court is the claim by Ghazali Bin Abdullah (Claimant) that he had been dismissed from his employment without just cause or excuse by FGV Plantations (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd (Company) on the 13 February 2019.

[5] The Company is a subsidiary of FGV Holdings Berhad ("FGV") and is involved in the production of crude palm oil. The Group of Company appointed the Claimant as an engineer effective 2 April 2007 by way of a letter of appointment dated 15 February 2007 and the Claimant's last held position in the Company was as senior manager in the Company's technical department. By virtue of the Claimant's senior position in the Company, the Claimant was involved in a tender process committee of a housing development project of the Company. On the 8 October 2018, a company known as Jajaran Pertama Sdn Bhd (JPSB) being one of the four companies, had submitted a tender for the said housing project of the Company and through the JPSB's tender submission, it was discovered that the Claimant, who was at the material time involved with the tender process committee of the Company's housing project was also at the same time employed as a Senior Engineer in JPSB.

[6] The Company alleged that the Claimant had breached or violated the Company's Code of Conduct & Policy by placing himself in a position of conflicts with the interest of the Company wherein it is the Company policy that all employees shall not directly or indirectly be involved or have interest in the dealings or activities of any enterprise or business without obtaining a written approval from the Company, employees are prohibited from having any profitable interest in any entity and must inform the Company in writing of such profitable interest if any, employees in a position to influence decisions that are made by the Company with respect to dealings with an entity owned by the said employee's friend or family. The Company also alleged that the Claimant had failed to disclose any contractual or non-contractual interest, direct or indirect in JPSB to the Company. Pursuant to the discovery of the Claimant's alleged misconducts, the Company conducted an investigation and thereafter issued the Claimant with a show cause letter. The Claimant responded to the show cause letter by