High Court rules in favour of US govt, quashes ministry’s referral for former worker
KUALA LUMPUR: The Kuala Lumpur High Court today quashed the referral issued by the Human Resources Ministry to refer former security guard’s dismissal case by the US Embassy in Malaysia to the Industrial Court.
In his ruling, Justice Datuk Nordin Hassan ruled in favour of the US government, saying that the latter enjoys immunity under the Vienna Convention.
The US Embassy was also awarded costs.
S Subramaniam, an ex-security guard with the US Embassy, was dismissed from his job on April 4, 2008. The man was neither given proper notice nor allowed to challenge the dismissal.
He then filed a case under Section 20 of the Industrial Relations Act for wrongful dismissal. However, his case was delayed for 11 years as former Human Resources Ministers, Datuk Seri Dr S Subramaniam and Datuk Richard Riot did not issue a referral to support his case.
However, on July 12, 2018, minister M Kulasegaran referred the matter to the Industrial Court. The case was then heard by Gulam Muhiaddeen on May 24 last year.
However, the US government challenged the referral made by Kulasegaran, citing immunity from criminal and civil suits under the Vienna Convention and Article 31 of the Federal Constitution.
The US government named Kulasegaran as its first respondent, the Industrial Court as second and Subramaniam as third.
The former security guard was represented by K Ragunath and Liew Chih Ching, while the minister was represented by senior federal counsel Liew Horng Bin.
The US government was represented by Lin Heng Seng and Amardeep Singh.
Speaking to the press after the ruling, Parti Sosialis Malaysia deputy chairperson S Arutchelvan said that he was disappointed with the verdict, saying the court had failed in its duty to protect its citizen against a powerful nation.
He also said that Ragunath had argued that Subramaniam’s case must be heard under Malaysian law and insisted that the US or any other nation do not enjoy absolute immunity.
“He also cited cases from the European Union and the UK which shows that foreign governments do not have absolute immunity over local laws.
“However, we failed to get a favourable verdict this time,” he said.
Arutchelvan added that the verdict also goes against a High Court judgment in 2016, which declared that foreign embassies and high commissions in Malaysia are not above local laws.
The PSM leader said that this verdict will have far reaching consequences, with thousands of Malaysians working for foreign embassies would now have no legal recourse should they get dismissed arbitrarily.
“Subramaniam will appeal against this unjust verdict. I also urge Kulasegaran to appeal against this decision as well.
“We must act in the interest of Malaysian workers,” said Arutchelvan.
By G Vinod
