Former MIA CEO’s dismissal deemed justified in industrial dispute
A former chief executive officer at Malta International Airport had breached “the full and unquestionable trust” underpinning his high office by leaking business secrets, thereby providing justification for dismissal.
Marcus Klaushofer filed proceedings before the Industrial Tribunal claiming that his contract of employment at MIA had been unilaterally terminated, for no valid reason in January 2015.
The applicant had signed a three-year contract with the company in 2012 and that agreement was subsequently extended up to June 2017 with a pay rise that resulted in an annual salary of €175,907.
Yet, MIA legal counsel argued that the termination had followed suspicion which first arose in 2014 when company officials sensed that Klaushofer was leaking confidential company information to third parties having an interest in acquiring shares in the consortium owning the airport.
Following an earlier incident concerning leaked sensitive information related to the sale of shares by SNC Lavalin to MMLC, the company had set up so-called “Chinese walls” so that any share transfer would be handled by an independent team bound by strict confidentiality obligations.
No member of the MIA...