Dear All,

A close friend of mine (not me, srsly) has tendered her resignation from the company not too long ago.

The resignation has been accepted and her last day and notice period was informed to her a week after the resignation. She suppose to serve her notice up till mid of August.

However, just after the raya holiday, she was told that she has been relocate/transfer and assigned a "special task" to an store outlet reporting to store manager under operation team. She is a HQ senior exec level staff.

Her superior verbally claim that such changes are due to 'conflict of interest' but never justify the misconduct she has committed without solid proof/evidence.

Such changes is deem as a serious demotion, insults and inconveniences due to the fact that she travels to work straight from walking to LRT nearby house and the LRT will be able to reach her office straightly.

Her offer letter clearly stated her as HQ staff that clocks in at 8.30am and out at 6.30pm as a senior exec. level staff responsible of doing merchandising/buying task but also she company has the right to ask employee to transfer. But did not include clause that states the employee must be able to travel, as she is a desk bound job.

The reassignment/transfer will be a major variation from her existing job scope and no official memo was given to her. Only thing is a JD. She was told to clock in at 8.30 at HQ but disallowed to enter office and then travel to the assigned outlet and wait for the shopping mall to open at 10am then she may allows to leave at 6.30pm. This is considered lenient as they deserve the right to ask her to follow the operation shift time of 10am to 10pm.

To her, this is completely unacceptable and she ask to leave the company immediately. The company then without hesitation offer her 2 optinos. Option 1 being that she leaves immediately but without salary/compensation pay-in lieu up to the last day of her notice period. The company will only pay her until the day after raya and the balance of her AL.

If she refuse, then she must take option 2 and go to outlet store to serve her remaining notice period there and disallowed to enter the HQ office. This utterly absurd arrangement and a trick by the company to force people out without paying them the compensation.

Because of the transfer and reassignment is done in such a short notice and the nature of it being a serious demotion and variation from the existing job plus an insults to her, in a way it is a dismissal forced by the company instead of the staff asking to leave.

Anyone know what is her rights and would it be fair to demand the company to compensate the salary up till the last day of the notice period?

Thanks

This post has been edited by NicJolin: Jun 30 2017, 02:36 PM

Got in touch with a industry relation lawyer, drafted a letter & sent to the company demanding the following:

"Immediately reinstate her position in the HQ office and let her finish her remaining notice"

or

"Claim of constructive dismissal due to the nature of your newly assigned task is too much variation to the offer letter, she can no longer accept to work in the company and force to leave immediately due to the employer's conduct, thus the employee in entitled to be paid salary in-lieu to the last day of her notice"

The company obliged the first option, refuses to pay her but also force to allows her into the HQ and resume her access to the systems, but they assigned her to admin and filing work for her remaining notice.


Lawyer also comment, constructive dismissal is being carried out quite often in Malaysia by employer and typically the employee would be subdued by the company, but in truth if this goes into the Industrial Relation Dept or even to Court, very likely the employee would win the case.