Judge Kenyatta orders MRA to pay K700mil to ex-workers
High Court Judge Kenyatta Nyirenda has ordered Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA) to pay K700 million of taxpayers money as compensation to its former employees who were fired in 2010.
Industrial Relations Court (IRC) had ruled the compensation package of K500 million but the ex-workers represented by lawyers Shepher Mumba appealed to High Court.
Former IRC deputy chairperson Jack N’riva , who is now High Court Judge, ordered the revenue body to compensate the ex-employees basing on his supplementary judgement of the matter on May 15 2014 in which he ruled that the people were unfairly dismissed.
But in his appeal, Mumba argued that IRC erred in law in dismissing their prayer for payment of redundancy benefits and notice pay in line with tax body’s conditions of service.
Judge Kenyatta Nyirenda agreed with some of the arguments by the appellant and ruled in favour of former employees of MRA.
He ruled that MRA used a wrong formula for calculating their severance allowance, notice pay and redundancy benefits.
“The respondents had failed to prove that thre was non-mitigation of losses on the part of the appellant,” reads the ruling in part.
More than 170 people was expected to benefit from the compensation but other died and there are now about 156..
MRA dismissed 215 employees on July 28 2010, but re-engaged a few of them while others died while waiting for judgement. The court has ordered the revenue body to pay the deceased in a similar manner through their representatives.
