Subject: LAW 2104 BUSINESS LAW

TOPIC' EMPLOYMENT LAW'

Its a problematic question

1) Ismail runs a busy cafe and has a number of part-time employees who wait on tables and work behind the counter. In recent weeks he has found that the accounts each day do not tally with the receipts and he is short by a couple of hundred ringgit. All the employees, full-time and part-time have access to the cashier drawer.

Ismail told all his employees that money has gone missing and he suspects one young lady, Mimi, who appeared quite nervous when he mentioned it to her. Another employee, Donna, has told Ismail that she saw Mimi acting suspicious recently when she was putting customers' money into the cashier drawer. She said that Mimi's face was red when Donna walked up behind and Mimi had the cashier's drawer open. It looked like Mimi had a hand in her pocket. When Donna asked her what she was doing, Mimi said that she was checking to see if they is any small change. Donna said that this had just made her more suspicious because Donna topped up the change just half an hour previously. Donna also told Ismail that another staff member had told her that Mimi had been showing her new iPhone that she had bought recently during her lunch break, saying that she had received some money from her parents.

Ismail asked Mimi to meet him in his office the following day and told her that he wanted to talk to her about the missing money. Mimi was in panic mode when Ismail spoke to her. She told Ismail that she is pregnant and will need to take maternity leave towards the end of the year.

Ismail is very worried. He wants to deal with the missing money issue and, if she has been stealing it, dismiss Mimi. But he has also heard so many horror stories about pregnant employees suing their employers for thousands of ringgit when they have been dismissed and he is concerned that he has no proof of her guilt.