PETALING JAYA: A project manager specialist in a leading telecommunications company was awarded RM703,664 in compensation after the Industrial Court ruled his dismissal for poor performance was without just cause or excuse.

In an award dated July 16, the Kuala Lumpur Industrial Court noted that Ng Keng Seng’s performance had never been appraised as “unsatisfactory” throughout his 25-year stint with the firm.

Court chairman Zulbahrin Zainuddin instead found that between 2017 and 2019, Ng’s employer, Maxis Broadband Sdn Bhd, had said his performance “partially meets expectations” (PME).

The court also noted that Ng’s annual evaluation reports over the three years neither provided reasons for the PME rating nor listed weaknesses in the performance of duties to warrant a dismissal.

Instead, Zulbahrin said that despite being rated PME, the company had in the three reports recorded its thanks to Ng for his “contribution” and “commitment”. The court also noted that Ng had received RM26,132 as a “token of appreciation” for his efforts.

According to evidence led in court, Ng was placed on a three-month ad-hoc performance improvement plan (PIP) on Sept 1, 2020 following his three consecutive “PME” ratings.

However, Zulbahrin found that this requirement was only implemented in January 2021. Prior to that, only those appraised as “unsatisfactory” would be placed in the PIP programme, he said.

“The court took note that there was no attention to detail or uniformity on the part of management in its application of the correct PIP policy to the claimant (Ng), which had confused and impacted him greatly as the company’s error resulted in his termination without just cause or excuse,” the award read.
According to Zulbahrin, Ng’s immediate superior, Macy Ho, testified that the decision to place him under the PIP programme was made by the company’s human resources department although it had no direct dealings with him on work matters.

Under the terms of the PIP, Ng was given 12 deliverables to accomplish over and above his core duties. The company said this was aimed at improving his performance.

Zulbahrin, however, noted that Ng had written to management questioning the timing of the PIP. Ng had said that 2020 was a challenging year, and that the Covid-19 pandemic required various changes to be made to existing work processes.

The court noted that Ng also expressed concern about his workload, especially with his department introducing a new core network to add capacity and partnering with a new vendor.

Ng had also expressed concern that the PIP programme had been imposed on him during the busiest period of the year, Zulbahrin added.

“The unclear PIP programme caused Ng hardship and affected his concentration when carrying out his daily duties. It also impeded the performance of his essential duties,” the award read.

As a result, Ng failed all three appraisals and was told that his services would be terminated with effect from Feb 28 the following year.

However, Zubahrin found that the PIP deliverables had obstructed Ng’s discharge of his core duties and was not designed to improve his performance.

“On the contrary, it had the tendency to burden the claimant, causing him to fail, and providing the company with an avenue to terminate his services,” the award said.

Ng joined the company as network management control system operator in 1995, drawing a monthly basic salary of RM2,400. He eventually assumed his current post, earning RM15,920 per month when his services were terminated in 2021.

Ng was awarded 24 months’ back wages, which after a 20% deduction for post-dismissal earnings, amounted to RM305,664. He was also given one month’s pay for each of his 25 years of service, totalling RM398,000, as compensation in lieu of reinstatement.

Patrick Tan appeared for Ng, while Maxis was represented by Janice Anne Leo, Adrienne Sena and Gurjeevan Singh Sachdev.

https://www.msn.com/en-my/news/national/max...ff7c38e0a&ei=36

I want to become manager and give poor performance too.

If you poor performance, you won't get compensation as its not unfair dismissal anymore.

Looks like Industrial Court's stand is that company should not dismiss employee during hardship...

kasi chans la macha.jpg

That's why it's unfair dismissal. He was targeted mainly because his salary was high and not because of bad performances.

Also, Maxis is not really making losses during pandemic.

This post has been edited by 30624770: Jul 26 2024, 09:45 AM

It's very difficult to prove poor performance. The court always side with the employees.

Even with PIP and 3 letters also the employer still lose. Dang.

Because the court see it as unfair appraisal. It was clearly orchestrated to get rid of people and not really justified.

https://forum.lowyat.net/index.php?showtopi...447&hl=Employee

haha... 1st you need to work for the company for more than 20 years to have a record like him that him did his job above average jer

2nd you need to work under big corporation, small company mana can give out this pay

3rd you need them to goreng u. It not easy ler... most of the time, they transfer you here and there or under someone you hated until u give up and resigned.

btw.. Maxis also stupid... i think another few years he going to retired too, just transfer him to other department and let the time passby

They probably doing cost cutting and targeting certain managers they deemed high salaries.

Kena fire got RM700k free monies

Maxis thought they would get away with Covid excuse

This post has been edited by submergedx: Jul 26 2024, 09:54 AM

The guy is smart enough to get the top management pissed off until cannot think

Lawyar mentioned the PIP tasks given are not his actual work

yeah but the HR dept doing a lousy job now. It always hard to terminated any employees unless it proven have done great harm to the company.
Especially for those working for so long, that is near impossible. The only way is tempting them with nice VSS packages

With that salary I it is definitely more political reason rather than cost reason.

That salary is nothing compared to what Maxis is making.

My guess he pissed off the higher management or the higher management wants to bring in their own cronies.



This post has been edited by Drian: Jul 26 2024, 09:59 AM

When a PIP is given, it should be substantiated with factual area where he had failed and the process implemented for his improvement for the given period.

Instead of hiring fulltime employees, the company could do contract hiring.

this unlawful dismissal seems to be gaining traction in Malaysia