THE National Union of Bank Employees (NUBE) wants an Industrial Court chairman in Johor recused following a dispute over the use of Bahasa Malaysia and English in court proceedings.
NUBE said in a statement today it would file the notice of recusal against Johor Baru Industrial Court chairman Sumathi Murugiah soon.
NUBE said that Sumathi had acted with bias against the union’s representative, Shariffudin Hassan.
Shariffudin had been representing union member Mohd Azrin Mohd Amin, who had filed a case against Public Bank Bhd over the latter’s dismissal.
During the trial’s first sitting on October 23, Shariffudin said that Sumathi had acted unfairly by not giving NUBE enough time to provide a letter of appointment for one of its officers, Evelyn Chan.
Chan had been assisting Shariffudin as the latter was not fluent in English. Sumathi had ruled that parts of the trial were to be in English.
Even though they could not produce the letter, Sumathi had ruled that the trial would proceed with Chan being told to sit in the public gallery and not as a representative of the plaintiff.
“I had then objected when the trial proceeded and said Sumathi should recuse herself from hearing this case as she was acting unfairly,” Shariffudin said in his affidavit.
“I repeated that Sumathi was not fair in not allowing reasonable time for me to get a letter from NUBE for Chan to assist me in this case.
“Sumathi had wanted to continue the hearing in English even though I said that I was only fluent in Bahasa Malaysia.”
According to the affidavit, at an earlier hearing in July, Sumathi had wanted Shariffudin to cross examine a witness from Public Bank in English as the witness statement was in that language.
As Shariffudin could not speak English fluently, Sumathi had then suggested Chan help him conduct the cross-examination. The hearing could not be continued and was rescheduled for Wednesday.
Shariffudin said he reported the incident to NUBE and the National Labour Advisory Council (NLAC).
“I was shocked because in the first (hearing), Sumathi had allowed Chan to help me and did not ask for any appointment letter.”
Shariffudin had then announced that he would file an affidavit to recuse Sumathi and argued that the trial should not proceed until a ruling was made.
Sumathi then said she would record the protest, adding: “Why are you still here? Please leave the bench. The case will go on with or without the union reps.”
Shariffudin, Chan and Azrin had then left the court hearing. – October 27, 2019.
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