 |
N100m damages: Parties making
progress on out-of-court settlement in the Jos Disco vs 45 ex-staff case
By Dickson Gupiya
April 05, 2019
A National Industrial
Court of Nigeria sitting in Jos today adjourned until May 17 for report of
settlement in a case between Jos Electricity Distribution Company Limited (JED)
and the 45 disengaged staff of the company over alleged non-payment of entitlements
amounting to N16.5 million and N100 million damages for disengaging them by the
Jos DisCo without notice.
The matter was slated
for today for report of settlement or proper hearing. When the case file was
called, Counsel to the plaintiff Anna Izang informed the court that a meeting
was held with both parties and agreement reached on some of the claims adding
that the only area where they had a problem was the issue of 100 million naira
general damages.
 |
| Prof Shaka S Shaka, Counsel to drfenders |
Counsel further observed
that if the matter had not come to court, they wouldn’t have been pushing for
damages but that since the matter was in court and the claimants have also gone
through so much stress and trauma the issue of general damages also needed to
be looked into.
 |
| Anna Izang, Counsel to Plaintiffs |
Earlier in his
submission, counsel to the defenders, Prof. Shaka S Shaka told the court that
parties were able to meet and have come to a general understanding that the
matter was one that can be settled adding that there was just one issue
outstanding and that they had gone through the claims with
plaintiff’s counsels and they understood that the claims are naturally or
normally due the claimants stressing that they should not just for the sake of
litigation keep on coming to court and frustrate these claims.
After Counsels
submission, the Presiding Judge, Justice Kenneth Amadi directed that the
defendants should at least look into the issue of damages and further urged the
parties to meet again and see if they settle the matter. Consequently, he
adjourned the matter until May 17, 2019
It would be recalled
that about 45 disengaged staff of Jos Electricity Distribution Company (JED)
have sued their former employer before National Industrial Court of Nigeria
sitting in Jos over alleged non-payment of their entitlements amounted to
N16.5m.
 |
| Former staff of JED at the Industrial Court Premises today |
The disengaged staff
also urged the court to order the company to pay the sum of N100 million
damages caused to them by the company after it has disengaged them on 13th,
October, 2017 without notice.
They told the court that
Jos Disco had owed them one month salary in lieu of notice to all the
disengaged staff, 30% balance for the month of September, 2017 and payments of
their leave grants.
The staff also claimed
that other entitlements the company has owed them included payment of their
house rents, payment of transfer allowances and non-remittances of their
pension contributions, which all the entitlements amounted to N16.5 million.
Post a Comment