Former manager awarded over RM800,000 by Industrial Court for unfair dismissal by MDEC Malay Mail, 5 February 2021 KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 5 A former manager for the government agency Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) was awarded over RM800,000 yesterday after the Industrial Court found the company guilty of unfair dismissal, after nearly two years of court proceedings. In the case document sighted by Malay Mail the claimant Thomas Kuruvilla, who worked at MDEC from September 2007 to May 2018, was awarded approximately RM 810,628, to be paid within 30 days of the award date. Kuruvilla was represented by lawyer T. M. Varughese, while MDEC was represented by lawyers Shariffullah Majeed and Amardeep Singh Toor. Industrial Court chairman Augustine Anthony presided over the case. MDEC, an agency established in 1996 and now under the Communications and Multimedia Ministry, was formed to implement the Multimedia Super Corridor initiative and to lead the growth of information and communications technology as well as the digital economy in the country. During the course of the trial, which began on February 28, 2019, MDEC argued that Kuruvilla's work performance began to degrade from 2015 onwards, which forced it to place him under several performance improvement plans (PIP) which lasted until 2017.