Del Monte staff fired for doctoring Salary to Sh250,000 while on sick leave

An employee who was caught altering her salary and benefits from Sh91,105 to Sh250,000 while on sick leave has lost a legal battle against her employer.

  Catherine Ochako, a former accountant at  Del Monte Kenya Ltd, challenged her dismissal for unauthorized access to the company’s payroll system and hiking her salary but the Labour Court upheld the company’s decision ruling that the termination was fair and justified.

 Ochako, who had worked for the company for four years as a payroll accountant, was fired in December 2020 after she accessed the payroll system without authorization and adjusted her basic salary and benefits significantly.

 Ochako had initially been earning a basic salary of Sh91,105, but during her sick leave in November 2020, she altered her salary to Sh250,000 nearly tripling her earnings.

 In addition, she increased her housing allowance from Sh19,000 to Sh35,000 and converted her transport allowance of Sh7,500 into a vehicle allowance worth Sh28,000.

 She accessed the payroll system and amended the salary on her payslip by providing herself benefits which were a preserve of the management staff.

 Ochako is said to have the salary adjustments twice on November 11 and 12, 2020 by accessing a payroll category not assigned to her.

 The alterations were discovered during a routine monthly payroll review by Ochako’s supervisor, the Senior Financial Accountant on November 26, 2020, which triggered an internal investigation.

After the probe, the fruit processing firm found that Ochako had made the changes when on leave which was a breach of the company code of conduct and business ethics policy and she was fired.

 Aggrieved by the decision, Ochako dragged her employer to court seeking damages for unlawful termination.

 The court heard that the accountant made the first adjustment on November 11, a day she had been granted sick leave and was recorded as not present in office, by increasing her salary on the payslip from Sh91,000 to Sh250,000 and later to Sh170,000.

 The second adjustment was made the following day when she changed her basic salary from Sh170,000 to Sh200,000.

 Ochako argued in her defence that the changes were not intended to defraud the company.

 She claimed that she was simply checking whether the payroll system was functioning correctly, as it often experienced technical glitches.

 Ochako contended that the changes did not result in any actual financial loss to the company because she did not receive the inflated salary.

 Despite Ochako’s claims, the court found that her actions constituted a clear breach of trust and misconduct.

Justice Byram Ongaya of the Employment and Labour Relations court in Nairobi ruled that the dismissal was both procedurally and substantively fair.

 The judge noted that Ochako’s access to the payroll system was unauthorized and that her actions were a violation of company policy.

 “While the claimant (Ochako) contended that she was only testing the system, her contradictory testimony stating she tested both the live and test environments undermined her defence,” Justice Ongaya explained.

  “The company’s decision to terminate her employment for this misconduct was valid and in accordance with the law.”

 Ochako had sought Sh2 million in damages for what she claimed was an unlawful termination, but the court rejected her request.

 The judge emphasized that the company had followed proper procedure in dismissing Ochako, citing that the termination was consistent with sections of the Employment Act, 2007, regarding fair treatment and the grounds for dismissal.