Justice Ravinthran Paramaguru said the management of Malaysian Mosaics Sdn Bhd was justified in its decision to downsize operations due to a loss of profits and changing market trends.
“The findings of facts of the Industrial Court, which were affirmed by the High Court, in respect of the reasons given by the company for their dismissal do not warrant interference by this court,” he said when dismissing the appeals by Au Lai Chan, Lim Chwee Hoon and Wong Meng Koon.
Ravinthran, who sat with Justices Yaacob Sam and Nazlan Ghazali, said the bench was conscious that it should be slow in interfering with the finding of facts of the Industrial Court.
In the 24-page judgment released last week, he said a ruling could only be set aside if there were good reasons, as the appellate court was exercising its review jurisdiction only.
Ravintharan said that the finding of redundancy is very much a fact-sensitive exercise.
He said a conclusion in one case, where issues such as declining profits and company reorganisation were deemed insufficient to make such finding of redundancy, cannot be applied to another case without a thorough examination of all the relevant facts.
The alleged redundancy in the present case stemmed from a decrease in the company’s profits and a decision to downsize its manufacturing operations by shutting down a plant in Kluang, Johor, which employed 501 workers, more than half of its production workforce.
In 2018, the company terminated the services of more than 20 management employees, including the appellants, with the aim of improving effectiveness and efficiency.
According to the facts of the case, Au was a senior general manager prior to her termination and her last drawn monthly salary was RM44,151.00.
Lim was an administration executive and her last drawn monthly salary was RM8,105.00 while Wong, whose last post was as general manager, drew a monthly salary of RM22,941.00.
The Industrial Court chairman found that a genuine redundancy had arisen in the company because of the downsizing and reorganisation that was necessitated by the losses suffered by the company from the year 2017 onwards.
“We are of the opinion that the finding of fact of the Industrial Court based on the financial statements and audited accounts is unassailable,” Ravintharan said.
He added that there was no evidence of bad faith and the company had also not replaced them with new employees.
Ravintharan said considering the size of the plant that was closed down and proven reasons, such as declining profits due to market conditions and poor yields, the decision by Malaysian Mosaics cannot be viewed with suspicion.
The appellants were represented by Shanker Subramanian and Juanita Louise Chua, while T Thavalingam and Sebastian Tay appeared for the company.