IN THE INDUSTRIAL COURT OF MALAYSIA CASE NO: 4/3 - 430/22 BETWEEN KESATUAN PEKERJA-PEKERJA PERKILANGAN PERUSAHAAN MAKANAN AND NESTLE MANUFACTURING (MALAYSIA) SDN. BHD.

AWARD NO: 2310 OF 2023 CORAM : Y.A. Tuan Augustine Anthony Chairman : Puan Bindu Girdharlal Patel Employees’ Panel Member : Puan Sarita a/p Beram Shah @ Rajaram Employers’ Panel Member VENUE : Industrial Court of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur.

DATE OF REFERENCE : 13.01.2022.

DATE OF RECEIPT OF REFERENCE : 11.02.2012.

DATES OF MENTION : 23.03.2022, 14.06.2022, 19.07.2022, 05.10.2022, 05.12.2022, 09.02.2023, 30.03.2023 & 19.09.2023.

DATE OF HEARING : 22.06.2023.

REPRESENTATION : Mr. VK Raj and Miss SP Devi of Messrs Rajadurai P Kuppusamy & Co - Counsel for the Union : Mr. Raymond TC Low and Mr. Wong Kian Jun of Messrs Shearn Delamore & Co –

Counsel for the Company.

THE REFERENCE This is a reference dated 13.01.2022 by the Honourable Minister of Human Resources pursuant to section 26(2) of the Industrial Relations Act 1967 (“The Act”) arising out of a trade dispute between KESATUAN PEKERJA-

PEKERJA PERKILANGAN PERUSAHAAN MAKANAN (“the Union”) and NESTLE MANUFACTURING (MALAYSIA) SDN. BHD. (“the Company”) in relations to “Tuntutan Pelarasan Gaji Sebanyak RM400.00 &

Tunggakan Gaji Oleh 4 orang Boilerman”.

AWARD [1] The parties in this matter filed their respective written submissions dated 23.08.2023 (Union’s Written Submissions), 01.09.2023 (Company’s Written Submissions), 18.09.2023 (Company’s Reply Submissions) and

18.09.2023 (Union’s Reply Submissions)

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

(i) The Union’s Statement of Case dated 29.04.2022;

(ii) The Company’s Statement In Reply dated 14.06.2022;

(iii) The Union’s Rejoinder dated 15.07.2022; (iv) The Union’s Bundle of Documents - UB1;

(v) The Union’s Documents - U2 ;

(vi) The Company’s Bundle of Documents - COB;

(vii) Union’s Witness Statement - UW-WS (Encik Mahfudz Bin Harun);

(viii) Company’s Witness Statement – COW1-WS (Encik Maizol Hazidy Mahady);

(ix) Company’s Witness Statement – COW2 – WS (Mr. Tee Chee Sin);

INTRODUCTION [3] This is a trade dispute between the Union and the Company arising from the claim of the Union for the salary adjustment for 4 boiler men in the Engineering Department who were allegedly not paid the salary adjustment of RM400.00 monthly in 2017.

[4] The Union states that the Company has a total of 8 boiler men. 4 boiler men of the Company were discriminated wherein these 4 boiler men were not paid a one off salary adjustment in 2017. The Union states that only 4 boiler men were paid the one off salary adjustment of RM400.00 per month on the basis that these 4 boiler men were made to carry out extra duties at the Company’s waste water treatment plant which were in actual fact not to be considered as any extra work since in their absence the 4 discriminated boiler men had to shoulder the work left behind at the boiler house by the other 4 boiler men on duty at the waste water treatment plant. The Union prays for the one off salary adjustment and payment to be made in favour of the 4 boiler men in this case from 2017.

[5] The Company maintains that it had at no time discriminated the 4 boiler men who were purportedly not paid the one off salary adjustment of RM400.00 per month since 2017. The Company states that although all the 8 employees are boiler men according to the Collective Agreement between the Union and the Company, in practice the 4 boiler men who carried out the extra work at the waste water treatment plant were in fact “chiller men” whereas the 4 purportedly discriminated employees were “full time boiler men”. The law requires the full time boiler men to be stationed at the boiler house to deal with any emergencies whereas the chiller men are allowed to carry out other tasks. The Company states that the boiler men and chiller men carry out different duties and functions wherein the chiller men’s duties inc