Companies
Sacked Cisco staff sues for Sh1bn
Tuesday July 11 2023
People queue at the CISCO stand. FILE PHOTO | AFP
A former sales manager at Cisco Systems Management BV has sued the American data and technology firm, seeking more than Sh1 billion as compensation for an alleged illegal sacking three years ago.
Grace Mokaya says in the petition filed before the Employment and Labour Relations court that her termination in July 2020 was unfair and unlawful.
Read: Risks for employers sacking ‘poor performers’
The bulk of the compensation Ms Mokaya is seeking is commissions she would have earned from IT solutions provided to the government of Kenya that allegedly earned the company billions of shillings.
“The claimant avers that the entire process leading to the termination of her employment breached her constitutional rights and fundamental freedoms protected under the constitution and also breached the principles of natural justice,” she says.
The case failed to proceed on Monday as Cisco asked for more time to file responses to documents filed by Ms Mokaya.
Justice Matthews Nduma directed the case to be heard on December 4.
The company had denied her claims, saying in documents filed in court that Ms Mokaya was given an opportunity to respond to the issues raised.
Court documents state that Ms Mokaya was employed in 2017 with an annual base salary of Sh5.2 million and a target incentive computed at 100 percent of the base pay, which would total to an equivalent of Sh10.5 million per annum.
She says in the documents that she exuded diligence and professionalism as captured in her year-to-year performance, except for the 2020 financial year.
Ms Mokaya says working together with her engineering and channel teams, she built a good pipeline with customers and she enjoyed what she did in positioning solutions that address citizen delivery.
“That having joined the respondent company in March 2017, I managed public sector and achieved good performance considering the sector’s dynamics,” she said in the petition.
Ms Mokaya says the trouble started when she was subjected to a continuous six-week Performance Improvement Plan (PIP), despite raising valid concerns about the unfair practice.
The company started a performance improvement plan between April and May 2020, a process in which she was informed that she would be subjected to weekly meetings to review and discuss the progress of her performance.
Ms Mokaya says she was asked to sign a mutual separation agreement, which she declined. However, on July 29, 2020, she was allegedly forced and coerced to sign a termination letter.
Also read: Equity Bank to pay 3 expats Sh13.8m for illegal sacking
Section 41 of the Employment Act states that an employer shall give an employee grounds for termination on poor performance.
