High Court allows lorry driver's appeal over EPF contribution

KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court here has allowed an appeal by a lorry driver, Maniam Subramaniam, against his former employer and the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) over his contributions to the retirement fund.
High Court Judge S. Nantha Balan, in allowing Maniam's appeal to get his backdated payment of RM12,791 said he viewed the payments as incentives and not 'trip reimbursements' or allowances as claimed by the employer Cold Chain Network (M) Sdn Bhd.
He also ordered the employer and the EPF to pay RM1,500 costs, each.
Maniam, 58, had claimed that his former employer Cold Chain Network (M) Sdn Bhd did not make any EPF contributions on the "trip reimbursements", which were paid to him, during the time he was employed by the company.
The High Court judge said the question was whether "trip reimbursement" is part of "wages" for the purpose of the EPF act.
"There were no expenses incurred by the plaintiff to be reimbursed by Cold Chain Network as the toll charges were paid by the Touch 'n Go card that was given to him by the company. He also does not use his own money to fill petrol for the lorry as he was given a petrol card.
"In reality, there was no reimbursement whatsoever. The label 'trip reimbursement' which appeared in the plaintiff's salary slip is a misleading label."
The judge said the use of the multitude of labels in itself is quite troubling and this should have been a 'red flag' for EPF.
'"But EPF seems quite oblivious to Cold Chain Network's indiscriminate use of labels to describe the payment that was made to the plaintiff, over and above the basic salary.
"EPF's own view, as to what constitutes "travelling allowances", suggest very clearly that travelling allowance is to defray any expenses associated with travelling whilst on duty," Nantha said.
"In my view, it is not a reimbursement in any shape or form. Hence, it is not a "trip reimbursement". It is not a trip or travel allowance because it is not to defray any expenses incurred with travelling whilst on duty for the employer," said Nantha.