Ex-Nzoia Sugar MD gets Sh3.3m for unpaid dues
Western
By
Robert Amalemba
| May 02, 2023
A finance manager who was promoted to the position of managing director (MD) for three years without substantive pay has been awarded Sh3.2 million by the court.
This is the amount he was denied by his employer, Nzoia Sugar Company even after the promotion.
The Employment and Labour Relations Court sitting in Bungoma regretted that Godfrey Wanyonyi was deprived of the right to pay even as he was gazetted to the same position.
"Wanyonyi is entitled to the award on underpayment as stated above of a total sum of Sh3.23 million with interest at court rate from judgment date and costs of the suit," said Justice Jemimah Keli.
"The court finds that the act of the Agriculture Ministry to gazette the claimant as a managing director and the subsequent failure to approve the recommended remuneration by the board when the claimant was already in office was tantamount to unfair labour practice which the court cannot condone."
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The judge however refused to award Mr Wanyonyi Sh4.24 million which he sought as gratuity after serving as MD between 2016 and 2019 since he had no substantive contract.
The miller put in a spirited defence saying it employed Wanyonyi as a finance manager with a contract to show for it, before it recommended him for the MD position in a board meeting on July 29, 2016 "without a contract".
It said the terms of employment as agreed by the board were forwarded to the Cabinet Secretary of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries through a letter dated August 5, 2013, for contractual approval.
"But before that was done, Wanyonyi was charged with allegations of corruption leading to his suspension on January 13, 2017, and was paid half his salary all through the suspension as agreed in the letter of employment as a finance manager. The approval for terms as managing director had not been approved before the suspension," said the company.
Wanyonyi argued that he was initially employed as a finance manager and served as MD from May 2016 to May 2019 when the contract of service came to an end.
He said during the service, he continued to earn what he used to get as finance manager.v