THE Industrial Court has ruled in favour of 12 former employees of the Movie Animation Park Studios (MAPS) in Perak, who had challenged the company over their dismissal.

Court chairman Rasidah Chik ruled that Animation Theme Park Sdn Bhd, the company behind MAPS, must compensate them RM910,310.

The theme park in Ipoh, partially owned by the state, ceased operations on January 28, 2020. It was touted as Asia’s first animation theme park.

In the January 21 judgment sighted by The Malaysian Insight, Rasidah ruled that the award consisted of eight months’ backdated salaries and reinstatement compensation.

The employees were notified on August 26, 2019 of their termination, which came into effect the next day.

In the letter of termination, the company’s chief executive officer Mohamed Shafeii Abdul Gaffoor said the employees would be given one month’s salary as payment in lieu of the notice.

They were also informed that they were no longer required to attend to MAPS operational matters and required to vacate the office immediately after completing the exit process with the human resources department.

The 12 employees were represented by Addrie Soo of the law firm Gibb & Co and Kingsley Wambeck of Kingsley & Co.

Rasidah said the company’s representative never attended any hearing despite being served with several notices.

“When the hearing for the case was called on August 11, 2020, the company representatives were still absent from court. In fact, the company did not even file a statement of reply,” Rasidah said.

Therefore, she said the plaintiffs’ lawyers had requested for an ex parte proceeding.

State-owned Perak Corp controlled a 51% stake in Animation Theme Park via its wholly owned subsidiary PCB Development.

However, the company was put under receivership on December 4, 2019.

It had more than 40 attractions including 23 interactive features and 15 thrill rides in six thematic zones.

The theme park was built at a cost of RM520 million.

Perak Corp said in a bourse filing in October 2019 that PCB Development defaulted on the repayment of principal for a syndicated loan facility of up to RM280 million.

The financing facility was from Affin Hwang Investment Bank Bhd, Affin Bank Bhd, Bank Pembangunan Malaysia Bhd and Malaysia Debt Ventures Bhd. – January 31, 2021.