Chairman Syed Noh Said Nazir @ Syed Nadzir held that MAHB’s dismissal of Maznida Mohamad was “harsh, unjust and unreasonable”.

He held that MAHB had failed to consider her 22 years of service with the company before coming to a decision to remove her.

“The just and proper finding on the contrary is that the claimant (Maznida) was dismissed without just cause or excuse,” Syed Noh said in his award last month.

Maznida was awarded a total of RM885,295.30 as compensation and backwages.

In 2019, MAHB announced that KLIA had experienced a system failure which had resulted in flight delays.

The glitch was said to be the first the airport had experienced since it opened in 1998.

Maznida was a senior manager at MAHB’s IT department during the material time.

MAHB alleged that she had failed to discharge her duty of ensuring that the company and airport’s IT networks were fully functional.

She made representations over her dismissal to the industrial relations department under Section 20 of the Industrial Relations Act 1967. The department referred the dismissal to the court for adjudication.

Maznida said that during her 20 years of service, she had always carried out her duties diligently and in the best interest of the company.

She added that the transport ministry investigated the incident in 2019 and found that it had been caused by the company’s ageing core network switches which had not been replaced since 1998.

“It is unchallenged evidence that the claimant (Maznida) had submitted multiple proposals to the company to upgrade or replace its ageing equipment and even highlighted the dire consequences if they did not do so, over the years.

“This court is satisfied that she had done everything she could to discharge her duty as an IT senior manager,” Syed Noh said.