The acceptance of a mutual separation agreement cannot be deemed involuntary without proof of coercion or undue influence.

[2] This matter was transferred to this Court on 09 October 2018, pursuant to the instructions from the Yang Dipertua, Mahkamah Perusahaan Malaysia in order for the case to be heard and Final Award be handed down by this Court.

Brief Facts

[3] The Claimant was employed by the Company, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Petroliam National Bhd ("Petronas") with effect from 06 April 2011. The Claimant was initially engaged as a Principal Consultant, assigned to the Oil & Gas Consulting Department for a fixed period of one (1) year. Vide a letter dated 20 February 2012, the Company offered permanent employment to the Claimant.

[4] The Claimant was redesignated as the Company's Head of Oil & Gas Consulting effective from 01 November 2012. The Claimant was promoted on 13 December 2013 to a higher grade without change of title and was then appointed as the Head of Oil & Gas Solutions & Services Department. Concurrently, the Claimant was appointed as the Head of Projects of another Petronas subsidiary, Virtus IP Sdn Bhd with effect from 15 November 2013.

[5] Effective from 01 April 2014, the Company appointed one Redza Goh Aik Meng ("Redza Goh") as the Chief Operating Officer ("CEO") of the Company. Under Redza Goh's stewardship, the Company underwent re-organisation whereby departments within the Company were restructured and three General Managers were offered Mutual Separation Packages ("MSP") to leave the Company on their own accord.

[6] The Claimant was also offered a MSP on 25 March 2015, which he accepted on 30 March 2015. Pursuant to the MSP, the Claimant had received a severance pay- out package of RM251,864.64 from the Company. At the time of his MSP, the Claimant held the post of Head of Technical Information Services with a salary of RM34,454.00 per month. The Claimant's last date of service in the Company was 31 March 2015.

[7] A month later, the Claimant filed a representation under s 20 of IRA 1967 on 29 April 2015, claiming that he was dismissed by the Company without just cause or excuse.

The Claimant's Pleaded Case

[8] It is the Claimant's case that as the Company's Head of Oil & Gas Solutions & Services Department, he was involved with the vendors who delivered Information Technology Solutions to the Company. The Claimant had problems with one vendor namely, Accenture Solutions Sdn Bhd ("Accenture") and Redza Goh was the then Country Managing Director of Accenture.

[9] Upon his appointment as the Company's CEO, Redza Goh was supporting the interests of Accenture, broke up the Claimant's Oil & Gas Solutions & Services Department and initially placed it under Project Delivery Division before renaming it as Technical Information Department and placing the Claimant under a newly created division called ICT Business Services Division.

[10] Between September and December 2014, three General Managers left the Company via Mutual Separation Schemes and new personnel were hired from Accenture, without going through the Company's normal recruitment process.

[11] In August 2014, the Claimant was part of the tender evaluation team for RAPID ICT Program & Solution Management Project ("RAPID Project"). Three vendors had participated in the tender including Accenture. Redza Goh and Kenny Chong, another former employee of Accenture were members of the tender evaluation team. This team decided to award 4 of the 7 work streams to Accenture. Thereafter, another decision was made to award all the 7 work streams arising from the tender to Accenture. The Claimant claims that he had highlighted that the decision of the team was not in adherence to the original bid strategy and/or Petronas's guidelines on competition