A High Court labour dispute session between the UAP Old Mutual Company and former South Sudanese employees was on Friday adjourned due to the absence of the presiding judge.
A counsel for the terminated national staff, Marko Reech Chan, told Radio Tamazuj that the court was expected to have a session on the preliminary objection, but they could not proceed due to the missing judge, who gave no reasons for his absence.
“The honorable judge did not come for a reason not unknown to us. He might be sick or having other issues,” Reech said.
“The clerk kept on telling us that the judge may or may not come. We will come on Monday to fix another day for the session,” he said.
In September last year, 57 national staff of the UAP Old Mutual Company staged a strike over what they termed as unfair work environment.
They accused the company of unequal payment compared to their foreign counterparts.
However, the company decided to sack the leaders of the national staff association, who later dragged it to court.
The Ministry of Labor later issued directives for UAP to rehire the dismissed national staff, and proposed salary increments.
However, the management of UAP Insurance South Sudan has not complied with the directives, prompting the former employees to resort to the court.