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Portharcourt –His Lordship, Hon. Justice Zaynab Bashir of the National Industrial Court of Nigeria, Portharcourt division, on Thursday 28th March 2019 declared the employment termination of five former school teachers, Mr Innocent Osuagwu and 4 others by the Victory Child Academy/High School as wrongful, the court ordered payment of N420,500.00 (Four Hundred and Twenty Thousand Five Hundred Naira) to the Claimants being their owed arrears of salaries within 30 days, failure of which same shall attract 10% interest annually till the judgment sum is liquidated.
The Claimants are by the Complaint and statement of complaint, claiming jointly against the Defendants among others; A DECLARATION that the termination of the appointment of the claimants without prior notice is unlawful and a breach of implied terms of their employment agreement. AN ORDER of court directing the Defendants to pay the sum of N420,500.00 (Four Hundred and Twenty Thousand Five Hundred Naira) only to the Claimants being the arrears of salaries owed the claimants before their unlawful termination.
Likewise, An ORDER directing the Defendants to pay the claimants the sum of N2.1 million (Two Million One Hundred thousand Naira) being and representing compensation for untold hardship, sufferings and mental agony inflicted on the claimants by the abrupt decision of the defendants without payment of salary arrears.
Arising from the statement of fact and witness deposition on oath of the Claimants, the case of the Claimants is that they have worked for the Defendants according to their number of years during which they were never issued with queries nor found liable for misconduct.
That the Defendants laid them off from their employment in July 2017 without prior notice and with months of arrears of salaries left unpaid. The Claimants posited that they were not given notice and were not paid salary in lieu of notice.
The Claimant then approached the Legal Aid Council who set up a mediation where the 1st Defendant was issued with the names of the Claimants and the arrears of monies owed to them. Still, the monies were not paid hence this suit.
Arising from the statement of defence and witness, the Defendants stated that Claimants are not confirmed staff as they are on probation. They posited that the Claimants’ employments were not terminated but the Claimants without notice abandoned their place of work after July, 2017.
They added that the reason why they abandoned their place of work was because the Claimants had disobeyed the instruction of the 3rd and 4th Defendants by permitting some of their students to sit for examination without paying their school fees contrary to a circular issued in that regard and the sum total of fees owed was N1,699,000.00.
That the Claimants failed to attend the meeting regarding the school fees debt and had since then absconded from work. The Defendants posited that no agreement was entered into by the 2nd Defendant on behalf of the 3rd and 4th Defendants for payment of salaries to the Claimants and added that the Claimants are not entitled to the claims sought.
In reaction to the forgoing, counsel to the Claimants, B. Uzozie Esq., through the final written address asked for determination WHETHER THERE IS A CONTRACT OF EMPLOYMENT BETWEEN THE CLAIMANTS AND THE DEFENDANTS AND IF PARTIES ARE NOT BOUND BY THE TERMS OF CONTRACT AS IMPLIED BY THE LAW IN THE FACE OF AN OBVIOUS UNWRITTEN CONTRACT.
After careful evaluation of all the processes filed, and the submissions of the learned Counsel from both sides. The Court presided by Hon. Justice Zaynab Bashir expressed thus;
“The defendants have not placed any evidence to establish that Claimants abandoned their work in view of the culpability to pay N1, 699,000.00 being the school fees of students who took exams without paying the fees.
“By virtue of the numbers of years that they have worked, the 1st Claimant is entitled to 1-month notice, 2nd and 3rd Claimants are entitled to 2 weeks’ notice, while 4th and 5th Claimants are entitled to one week notice respectively.
“Arising from the circumstances of the case, I find that the Defendants did not issue any such notice to the Claimants before laying them off i.e. before terminating their employment and that makes the termination wrongful and I so hold.
“Arising from the forgoing, I find on a preponderance of evidence, that the Defendants are indeed indebted to the Claimants for arrears of salaries.”
The court ordered defendants to pay the sum of N420,500.00 (Four Hundred and Twenty Thousand Five Hundred Naira) only to the Claimants being the arrears of salaries owed the claimants before their unlawful termination within 30 days failure of which same shall attract 10% interest annually till the judgment sum is liquidated.
Other reliefs were declined for lacking merit.
