A dismissal must be supported by just cause, demonstrated through the employer's adherence to applicable processes and the employee's responsibility in maintaining standards of conduct, particularly for roles of significant trust.

Noor Ruwena Mohd Nurdin:

[1] The Ministerial reference in this case required the court to hear and determine the claimant's complaint of dismissal by the First Company and Second Company on 8 February 2012 and was received by the Industrial court on 9 January 2013.

[2] Originally the reference by the Minister against "Sunway Resort Hotel & Spa" as the First Company which went by its brand name and the Second Company. Upon the claimant's application, vide Award No 228 of 2017 [[2017] MELRU 228] dated 7 February 2017, the First Company's brand name "Sunway Resort Hotel & Spa" was substituted with the First Company's registered name, that is, "Sunway Resort Hotel Sdn Bhd". Meanwhile, the respondents in this case referred to the First Company as "the Company" and the Second Company as "the Management Company". Both companies are separate entities and the First Company is not a subsidiary of the Second Company. Nevertheless, both are part of the conglomerate known as the Sunway Group. The Company is partly owned by Sunway City Berhad. For the purpose of this Award and convenience, the court will refer to the First Company as "the Company" since most of the references to the claimant's employer and employment were in regard to the First Company rather than the Second Company. And the Second Company will be referred to as "the Management Company".

[3] This case was heard, at the early stage by the previous Chairman of court 12 and hearing commenced on 29 October 2014. The hearing dates and part-heard dates allocated for this case in 2014 had to be vacated upon the parties' application on the grounds that they were not ready with the witness statements, extension of time requested to file witness statements, witnesses unwell, family emergencies, or that the hearing dates were not suitable for the Company's witnesses or the claimant (he had found other employment after the dismissal). The first witness for the Company testified on 29 October 2014 and continued with his cross-examination on 2 and 3 February 2017. Then previous Chairman was transferred to a different court in Penang on 15 March 2017. The case continued on 5 June 2017 before me as both parties did not object to a different Chairman taking over the conduct of this case. After presenting 7 witnesses for the company, the claimant commenced his case on 14 August 2019 and closed it on 10 March 2020. Parties were then directed to file the Written Submissions on 21 April 2020 and Reply Submissions on 5 May 2020. Nevertheless, the submissions were delayed due to no fault of the parties because of the implementation of the various control orders after the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemonium. The last submission was filed on 1 July 2020. There were altogether 15 charges and no dearth of evidence adduced by the Company. One witness in particular had four witness statements filed by the Counsel. Another witness had three statements. Some of the evidence were repetitive. Only one document remained as ID11 that was submitted by the Company. I did not allow it as the document was produced only for the purpose of the hearing. The court had painstakingly gone through all the evidence adduced in order to determine whether the dismissal was with just cause or excuse. It had been a long and tedious process but it cannot be avoided. Here is the result of the court's deliberation on the case.

Factual Matrix

[4] The claimant commenced employment as Director of Procurement on 3 April 2006 with the entity named and styled as Sunway Lagoon Resort Hotel, which was at that time managed by the First Company (known as Allson International at the material time), and he was later confirmed in his position vide letter dated 10 October 2006. At the time of his dismissal, the claimant was the Group Director of Procurement (GDOP) and he reported to the Company's General Manager (GM), John Autelitano. He received salary increments and bonuses over the period of five years that he was with the Company in rec