In a unanimous decision, the apex court reinstated the Industrial Court’s original finding that Fatimah Noordin had voluntarily entered into a mutual separation agreement with her employer eight years ago.

Delivering the court’s judgment last week, Justice Ahmad Terrirudin Salleh said the Court of Appeal had erred in relying on fresh evidence drawn from an unrelated civil suit to set aside the Industrial Court’s award.

An Industrial Court award cannot be set aside based on evidence that was not placed before it, said Terrirudin.

The Court of Appeal had previously ruled that the separation agreement was involuntary and warned employers against dismissing their employees “under the guise of agreements, arrangements, schemes or any other euphemism”.

However, the Federal Court disagreed, setting aside the appellate court’s order for Carsem to pay Fatimah back wages and awarding the company RM50,000 in costs.

The three member panel was chaired by Court of Appeal president Abu Bakar Jais and also included Justice Zabariah Yusof.

Carsem, a member of the Hong Leong Group, was represented by Thavalingam Thavarajah, assisted by Sebastian Tay and Jane Tan. Fatimah was represented by Raam Kumar and Norleena Jamal.