KUALA LUMPUR: A former company director was found to have been unfairly dismissed from her position after the Industrial Court ruled that her ex-husband engineered the dismissal following a contentious divorce.
Industrial Court chairman D Paramalingam described the legal dispute as "a very peculiar case wherein the marital problems between the directors
of the company, had seeped into the workplace, causing an alleged toxic environment, culminating in the claimant's dismissal."
The claimant, an IT Helpdesk and Human Resources Director, had no disciplinary actions in over six years of service since 2014 at the company, he added.
The claimant was dismissed on Feb 28, 2022 by the company.
Paramalingam said that no show-cause letter was issued, nor was a domestic inquiry conducted regarding the alleged acts of misconduct.
"In fact, during cross-examination, the claimant testified that she did not even know the reasons for her dismissal from employment with the company at the material point in time," he said in a 22-page industrial court judgement obtained by the New Straits Times.
The award was handed down on Dec 12.
"This Court finds that the claimant's dismissal from her employment with the company was orchestrated by the claimant's ex-husband. It was purely actuated by malice and with the sole intention to drive the claimant out of her employment after their divorce," Paramalingam said.
He also said it was evident before this Court that husband had been instrumental in getting rid of her employment with the company.
"His action stemmed from the fact that he went through a bitter divorce proceeding with her and the bad blood between them carried on to the working environment in the company."
The court awarded the claimant, who was earning RM7,000 a month, a total of RM151,200 in compensation. This amount comprised RM42,000 as compensation in lieu of reinstatement, and RM109,200 in back wages, after a 35 per cent deduction for post-dismissal earnings.
The claimant had joined the company as a sales coordinator and IT helpdesk analyst.
She assumed her current role in 2018 and became a shareholder in 2020, but was dismissed two years later.
During the hearing, the husband who is also the managing director said that the claimant had circulated misleading information about him that was unrelated to her work with the company.
Sometime in February 2022, the company discovered that the claimant had started spreading misleading information "in relation
to me in the company, which was unrelated to her employment with the company," he had told the court.
"The claimant had also defamed me before the
clients of the company, which caused irreparable damages to the reputation of the company."