We were fired for highlighting discrepancies, say KSSB staff

ARCHIVES 2012

By admin-s On Feb 20, 2012

(TMI) – Nine ex-employees at Selangor’s sole sand-mining concessionaire have claimed they were sacked or forced to resign after speaking out about alleged irregularities in the firm’s operations.

According to The Star, the employees were given the axe or made to leave Kumpulan Semesta Sdn Bhd (KSSB) over a five-month period beginning August last year.

Some have lodged police reports over alleged intimidation by the management of KSSB while others are pursuing legal action through the industrial court.

Former security manager Azmi Mohd Isa, told the English-language daily he was fired following a domestic inquiry after filing complaints over contractors who had dredged outside designated zones.

KSSB sacked him for allegedly failing to check on the legal status of a security company which had been appointed to guard KSSB’s sand mines and facilities.

“Instead of taking action (against the contractors), the company gave me the boot for allegedly causing losses,” he said.

Another former employee known only as Ng said he was “given a hard time” after he told KSSB management contractors were not declaring the actual amount of sand being taken out of the mines.

He said he was then transferred to a remote mining site and “put in cold storage” before the company sacked him for disputing “trumped up” claims that he had trespassed into a cabin at a mine.

A sacked security supervisor who wanted to be known only as Halim said he too had been transferred from a sand mine in the north of the state to one in the south after he complained of suspicious on-site activity.

“I told the KSSB management of attempts by contractors to extract lorry loads of wet sand, mining outside stipulated areas, all of which is tantamount to stealing.

“Instead of taking action against the contractors, KSSB decided not to renew my work contract. It ended this month,” he said.