Selangor agency’s dismissal of employee for info leak to Chegubard upheld

The Industrial Court here has upheld a Selangor government agency’s sacking of its staff member for releasing confidential information to former Bersatu leader and activist Badrul Hisham Shaharin, also known as Chegubard.

Yayasan Selangor dismissed Khairi Salleh in May 2023 following a disciplinary inquiry which found him guilty of disseminating two documents containing confidential information relating to the company to Chegubard.

The documents formed the basis of a letter Chegubard wrote to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) as well as a press statement containing corruption allegations.

A probe by the company’s IT department found that the drafts of both documents had originated from Khairi’s Microsoft Office account.

A domestic inquiry had also found him guilty of a second charge of using a name card that misrepresented his position in the company for his personal benefit.

Court chairman Ahmad Razif Sidek said the claimant’s evidence and answers in cross-examination completely contradicted both his pleadings and witness statement.

“The company had proven on a balance of probabilities the misconduct of the claimant on the two charges,” the chairman said in an award handed down on Aug 27.

He added that the domestic inquiry did not show that the company had violated the principles of natural justice or acted in bad faith when taking disciplinary action.

“It cannot be said that the penalty imposed by the company was unduly harsh or disproportionate. The claimant’s misconduct was such that the confidence and trust that would be necessary for the company to continue the employment had been destroyed.

“In the circumstances, the company was justified in dismissing the claimant. The misconducts committed were grave, serious and went to the very heart of the employment relationship, which is founded upon mutual trust and confidence,” the award read.

According to the company, false corruption allegations were published on Chegubard’s official Facebook account on March 28, 2023, claiming there were nine cases of misappropriation involving the sale of land in Bukit Tinggi belonging to Yayasan Selangor.

Two days later, Chequbard published a second posting rebutting the company’s communications department’s official denial of the allegations made in his first post.

The company further said that, because certain details in Chegubard’s letter to the MACC and his response to Yayasan Selangor’s denial could only have originated internally, its IT department was instructed to conduct data searches within its Microsoft system.

“The drafts of the letter to MACC and media response appeared to have been authored and/or modified by the claimant,” it said.

The claimant denied any knowledge of the two documents and contended that the draft letter to MACC was uploaded into his Microsoft account about three hours after Chegubard had read out the letter to the media.

He also argued that the mere existence of the documents in his computer system was not evidence of dissemination, adding that his Microsoft Office account had been hacked.

Razif said the claimant did not produce any evidence during the domestic inquiry or in court suggesting that the computer system’s safety features had been compromised.

“In fact, the claimant himself confirmed that it would not be possible for the company’s global administrator to edit such documents. He admitted in cross-examination that the documents were found in his Microsoft account,” he said.

The court noted that according to the company’s Code of Ethics, all staff were obliged to ensure their passwords were kept confidential. It said the burden of proof was on the staff to show they did not breach that duty and were not complicit in allowing the loss of confidentiality.

G Arumugam and Shairaah Atiqaah Radzali appeared for Yayasan Selangor, while Gelli Saring from the Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) represented the claimant.

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