Non Renewal Of Usaz Lecturer S Contract Not Due To Is Links Says Court

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The Industrial Court ruled that Universiti Sultan Azlan Shah’s non-renewal of Amirul Hassan Tajuddin’s fixed-term contract was not a dismissal from employment. (Facebook pic)
PETALING JAYA: A lecturer at a public university in Perak lost his job, but not because of allegations that he was a sympathiser of Wahhabism and the Islamic State (IS) as he had claimed, the Perak Industrial Court has ruled.
Court chairman Zulhelmy Hasan said the claimant, Amirul Hassan Tajuddin, lost his job after Universiti Sultan Azlan Shah in Kuala Kangsar did not renew his two-year fixed term contract after it expired in 2023.
Amirul was handed his first contract in 2017. It was renewed in 2019 and 2021.
He wanted the court to rule that the non-renewal of his contract in 2023 was tantamount to an unfair dismissal.
Zulhelmy said Amirul’s claim of being victimised by the university because of allegations made against him by unknown persons about his religious beliefs were not supported by any solid and credible evidence.
He said the testimony of Amirul’s witness. Zulfahmi Mohamad, dean of Islamic studies department at the time, could not be accepted as it was based on “mere assumptions and wrong perceptions to tarnish the image of the (university)”.
Zulhelmy said the dean’s personal report on the matter was only an internal investigation carried out based on anonymous complaints against Amirul.
“No evidence (was) adduced by the claimant in the trial proving or stating that his services were not renewed due to the complaint of an unnamed person as being the main reason,” he said in the award handed down earlier this month.
He said the decision not to extend Amirul’s contract was decided by the university’s selection committee and not by an individual board member, as he had alleged.
“The claims were deliberately fabricated and created by the claimant himself to mislead the court’s findings,” he added.
Zulhelmy said he was satisfied that Amirul’s three contracts were genuine fixed term post-retirement employment contracts.
“The claimant may be terminated at the expiry date by the (university). The claimant had himself accepted it voluntarily.
“He knew that he was subjected to the agreed terms and conditions as stipulated in each and every fixed term employment contract entered between the parties,” the award read.
Zulhelmy said there was no ambiguity or dispute as to the intentions of the parties, and that the contract was binding.
He said he was convinced that Amirul understood each and every written term and condition in it.
“Since the employee’s employment contract came to an end, there was no dismissal at all.
“The (university) has no obligation to state reasons for the non-renewal of the fixed term employment contract as the fixed term employment contract has formally brought an end to the employment relationship,” the award read.
Marwan Abdullah represented the claimant, while Mohammed Miran Salip appeared for the university. - FMT

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