BOT LOSES CASE AGAINST RETRENCHED WORKERS

THE Court of Appeal yesterday threw away with costs an appeal by the Bank of Tanzania (BoT) challenging either reinstatem ent or payment of 1.5bn/- in terminal benefits to its 31 retrenched workers.

Justices January Msoffe, Simon Kaji and Laurian Kalegeya upheld an objection raised by the workers through their advocate, Mr Julius Kalolo-Bundala, against the appeal opposing orders given on October 10, 2003, by three High Court judges.

High Court Judges Augusta Bubeshi, Njengafibili Mwaikugile and Katherine Oriyo had ruled in favour of the workers, quashing a decision by the Minister for Labour and Youth Development delivered by Industrial Court of Tanzania on August 2, 1996, confirming their redundancy.

In their objection, the workers told the appellate court that the BoT's appeal was incompetent because a judge had not signed t he drawn order attached to it. They also contended that the order bore different dates with that of the High Court's judgement.

Advocate Cuthbert Tenga, for the central bank, conceded to the objection, but requested the court to disallow the appeal
without condemning his client to pay costs as the mistakes appearing on the order were made by court officials.

The justices of the appellate court, however, ruled that the workers were entitled to be paid costs of defending the appeal since there were no evidence to convince the court that Mr Tenga had taken initiatives to rectify the mistakes.

It is alleged that the workers were declared redundant on October 31, 1993 purportedly under Voluntary Agreement dated September 28, 1993 signed between the bank and OTTU Branches on their behalf.

The workers had appealled to the Labour Minister, who on May 2, 1996 rejected their appeal and confirmed their redundancy. The Industrial Court blessed the minister's decision on August 2, 1996, in a trade dispute they had moved.

Having been aggrieved by both decisions, in 2002 the workers crossed over to the High Court by way of judicial review and applied for orders of certiorari and mandamus to call and quash the decisions complained of.

SOURCE: DAILY NEWS