KUALA LUMPUR | The Industrial Court has dismissed a claim by 36 former employees of Lion Group’s 79%-owned subsidiary, Megasteel Sdn Bhd, who alleged that they were unfairly fired by the company.
In a statement today, the Human Resources Ministry said the case was referred to the Industrial Court by its Minister M. Kulasegaran to be put on trial. But the trial did not proceed after the High Court issued a restraining order on May 5, 2018.
The employees did not make any application to the High Court to stop the restraining order for the trial to be continued in the Industrial Court, the statement said.
“Accordingly, the Industrial Court of Malaysia decided to dismiss the case with the right to re-file the case starting from the issue date of the award on July 1, 2019,” it said.
In Dec 2018, Deputy Human Resources Minister Datuk Mahfuz Omar said in the Dewan Rakyat that there were 56 cases that have been filed by employees of Megasteel from Feb 14 to Feb 24, 2017, involving 300 ex-employees, with claims amounting to RM6.66 million.
Loss-making Megasteel defaulted some RM3 billion worth of loans in 2015. It ceased operations of its Banting plant in 2016, amid poor market conditions.
