Court orders reinstatement of college former employees

 Faustine Kapama

Law

TANZANIA: THE Court of Appeal has ordered the Arusha Technical College to reinstate two Assistant Lecturers, Victor Meena and Halidini Sarakikya, who were terminated from

employment services for alleged misconducts.

Justices Shaban Lila, Zepharine Galeba and Agnes Mgeyekwa gave an order after allowing an appeal the two Lecturers, the appellants, lodged to challenge the decision of the High Court, which had ruled in favour of the college, the respondent.

“Therefore, we ultimately order the respondent to reinstate the appellants without loss of remuneration from the date of unfair termination to the date of reinstatement,” they ruled.

The justices pointed out that in case the employer cannot reinstate the appellants, it should abide by the conditions stipulated under rule 40 (3) of Employment and Labour Relations Act (ELRA).

During hearing of the appeal, the counsel for the appellants, Mr Jacob Malick, submitted that the High Court Judge erred in law for substituting the Commission for Mediation Arbitration (CMA) Arbitrator’s reinstatement award to one for compensation of 12 months’ salary in lieu thereof.

He told the court that the High Court judge reached into such a decision without giving reasons and taking into account that the given order would deny justice on the part of the appellants.

The counsel submitted also that the High Court Judge erred in law for failing to comply with the law by not ordering payment of remuneration of the appellants for all the period when they were out of work due to the unfair termination.

In their judgment delivered in Arusha recently, the justices of the appeals court went through section 40 (1) (a) of ELRA and came to the conclusion that reinstatement can only be ordered if the termination was both substantively and procedurally unfair.

They observed from the record that there is no dispute that in the CMA Form No. 1, the appellants complained that they were unfairly terminated and sought, among other reliefs, an order of reinstatement.

Again, the justices noted, there is no dispute that the High Court found that the termination of the appellants was substantially and procedurally unfair.

They pointed out that under section 40 (1) of the ELRA, reinstatement to employment is one of the remedies that an employee may be granted when the Arbitrator or the Labour Court finds that the employee was unfairly terminated from his employment.