The High Court on Wednesday adjourned a case over a labor dispute filed by former national staff of UAP Insurance South Sudan which is a subsidiary of the UAP Old Mutual Group, East Africa, and dismissed national staff to 25 October.
Speaking to reporters after the session, Advocate Marko Reech Chan who is representing the terminated national staff, said they received the reply to the preliminary objection and comments during the session and the next session will be on the point of law.
He revealed that there is a contradiction in the case because the defense team presented two documents claiming that the national staff were terminated and paid off their benefits and another document claimed that the labor ministry ordered the company to reinstate the terminated staff.
“Our reply on the documents submitted by the other party (defense) which is the document that contradicts the two documents coming from the Ministry of Labor. The first document was concerning the reinstatement orders from the Ministry of Labor and the second document was also issued by the same Ministry of Labor which approved the termination of the national staff,” he explained. “Out of those documents, we have only got the first one and that document is the point that we are sticking to and we do not know anything about the other issue.”
Advocate Reech added: “On our side, the case is still stuck in the Ministry of Labor up to date, we have filed our suit against the company, but what he (the defense lawyer) is claiming is something baseless, it has no any legal effect on this case, and we here seeking the court to declare that the termination was unfair and my clients should be reinstated back to their work.”
However, when reached for comment, the defense counsel representing the UAP Old Mutual Company declined to speak on the record but described the case as null and void as the case had been resolved by the labor ministry and the staff paid their benefits. He said he does not know why his client has been dragged to court.