Man wins appeal against ex-employer, EPF

KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court here has allowed an appeal by a lorry driver, Maniam Subramaniam, against his former employer and the Employees Provident Fund Board (EPF) over his contributions to the retirement fund.

High Court Judge S. Nantha Balan, in allowing Maniam’s appeal to get his backdated payment of RM12,791, said he viewed the payments as incentives and not “trip reimbursements” or allowances as claimed by the employer, Cold Chain Network (M) Sdn Bhd.

He ordered the employer and the EPF to pay RM1,500 costs each.

Maniam, 58, had claimed that Cold Chain Network (M) Sdn Bhd did not make any EPF contributions on “trip reimbursements”, which were paid to him, during the time he was employed by the company.

The judge said the question was whether “trip reimbursement” is part of “wages” for the purpose of the EPF Act.

“There were no expenses incurred by the plaintiff to be reimbursed by Cold Chain Network as the toll charges were paid by the Touch ’n Go card that was given to him by the company. He also did not use his own money to fill petrol for the lorry as he was given a petrol card.

“In reality, there was no reimbursement whatsoever. The label ‘trip reimbursement’ which appeared in the plaintiff’s salary slip is a misleading label.”

The judge said the use of the multitude of labels in itself should have been a “red flag” for EPF.