Court grants High Commission ex-office manager's application to set aside industrial relations D-G's decision

KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court here today granted a former High Commission office manager's application to set aside the Industrial Relations Department's decision not to intervene in her dismissal.
Justice Datuk Asmabi Mohamad made the ruling after allowing Chu Siew Mei@ Karen's application to challenge the decision.
The applicant's lawyer Edmund Bon said the court also ordered the Industrial Relations director-general who was the respondent in the case, to pay RM4,000 costs.
"The ruling is a first in Malaysia and will be a precedent for other local employees working in any foreign embassy or high commission," he told reporters here today.
Chu, 55, was formerly attached with the Australian High Commission and applied for leave for judicial review on March 21, 2014.
In her affidavit-in-support, she claimed that she was suspended from her job on May 28, 2013 till Dec 19, 2013 while under investigation for allegedly breaching the code of conduct.
Following her dismissal, Chu submitted a representation under Section 20 of the Industrial Relations Act to insist that it was unjustified and unfair.
In a letter dated Feb 5, 2014, Chu received a response from the department stating that it did not have jurisdiction and could not intervene in her dismissal as her former employer was an embassy which had diplomatic immunity.
The diplomatic immunity it said, was provided for in 'Articles of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations (1961), having the force of law in Malaysia' under the Diplomatic Privileges Act (Vienna Convention) 1966.
Other than the certiorari order to strike out the respondent's decision, Chu also sought a mandamus order for the respondent to study her representation, besides costs. — Bernama