In the case of Tengku Kamarolhisham Kamaruddin, who lost his job as deputy general manager at THP Bina Sdn Bhd, Kuala Lumpur Industrial Court chairman S Vanithamany said his services had been terminated “without any cogent proof”.

She ordered THP Bina, a construction subsidiary of Tabung Haji, to pay Tengku Kamarolhisham, whose last drawn salary was RM19,810 per month, 24 months’ back wages with a 20% deduction for being gainfully employed.

She also ordered the firm to pay him compensation in lieu of reinstatement equivalent to one month’s salary for each of the 10 years he had served.

The final amount, to be settled within a month, is RM578,460.

Vanithamany said THP Bina failed to prove allegations that Tengku Kamarolhisham had misused funds collected as penalties from errant contractors for unauthorised purposes.

“The company had terminated, without any cogent proof, the service of an employee who had worked for 10 years,” she said.

She noted that following the receipt of the letter, the company had commenced an investigation.

“However, it failed to prove any misconduct on the part of the claimant. (There was) no procedural breach, no breach of the terms of the contract and no breach of SOPs,” she said in the judgement delivered last week.

The court heard that the claimant’s problems began when an anonymous letter was sent to the Tabung Haji CEO, Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission and the chief integrity officer of the company.

In the letter were allegations of misconduct and misappropriation, namely accusations that fines meant to be deducted from contractors’ progress payment claims were instead paid in cash to health, safety and environment (HSE) officers.

Subsequently, the claimant was suspended from Jan 24 to March 3, 2020, and the company ordered a domestic inquiry into six charges. He was sacked on March 6 the same year.

The court consolidated the charges into three: that the claimant authorised the use of collected funds beyond his authority, permitted their use for purposes unrelated to HSE programmes and failed to ensure proper maintenance of invoices, receipts and other financial records.

Vanithamany said company witnesses had agreed that there were no written procedures on how these collected fines could be utilised and that the money was used for Hari Raya celebrations in 2013 and 2014 with the contractors’ consent.

She added that the court was puzzled over the basis on which the claimant was found guilty when there was no guideline or SOP on the usage of the fines collected at that time.

“Furthermore, the company had knowledge of the conduct of the claimant in using the money for all the causes explained.

“Until this point, there are no allegations against the claimant that the money was taken for his personal use. No related allegation against the claimant was ever reported. Despite all these, the company issued a show cause letter,” she said.

The chairman also said the company came up with SOPs in respect of the penalties collected only after the claimant was issued the show cause letter.

Nasrul Hadi Mat Saad appeared for the claimant while T Thavalingam and Aida Yasmeen acted for the company.