Court orders ₦108.5m payment to 18 workers for discrimination

The National Industrial Court in Yola has told the Taraba State Government and others to pay ₦108.5 million to 18 former staff of the Taraba Publishing Company Limited. This is for unpaid salaries and discrimination based on their states of origin.

James Fishim, the Presiding Judge, announced the decision on 24 June in Suit No. NICN/JOS/12/2021.

The judgement was only recently made public.

The court found that the workers, which included journalists, were wrongly left out of the Taraba State Civil Service because they were not from the state.

Hosea Yunana and 17 others took the case against the Governor of Taraba State and four other defendants.

The court awarded the claimants ₦73,257,715.40 for unpaid salaries and other entitlements from September 2014 to January 2021.

It also gave ₦30 million for the mental stress and hardship the claimants faced, plus ₦5.25 million for legal costs.

The court ordered the defendants to pay 10 percent annual interest on the total amount until it is fully paid.

The claimants worked for Taraba Publishing Company and included journalists who said their jobs were confirmed after their probation.

They told the court that they continued working until September 2014, when they stopped getting paid.

The workers stated that their jobs were never officially ended and they did not receive letters of termination.

They claimed that when the publishing company closed some offices, the Taraba State Government took in some former employees into the civil service but left them out because they were non-indigenes.

The defendants denied these claims. They said Taraba Publishing Company had been shut down and was a separate legal body from the state government.

They also argued that the claimants had no contract with the government. So, they believed the government was not responsible for their salaries and benefits.

But Justice Agbadu-Fishim rejected this defense.

The judge said the documents shown in court, including a report from the Corporate Affairs Commission, disproved the claim that the publishing company had been closed down.

The court found that the Taraba State Government had set up and managed the company for publishing and business purposes. They also appointed its managing consultant and chief executive officer.

Mr Agbadu-Fishim stated that the government could not start a company, hire workers, stop funding it, fail to formally end their jobs, and then claim the company’s legal status protects them from their employment responsibilities.

The court ruled that excluding the 18 claimants from being redeployed to the Taraba State Civil Service based on their states of origin was unconstitutional and discriminatory.

Mr Agbadu-Fishim said this action violated the claimants’ constitutional right to be free from discrimination.

The judge pointed out that employees of a state-owned company could, in some cases, be seen as part of the state’s public service when the government controls the company.

The court also made it clear that such employees still follow the company’s rules and contracts unless the Public Service Rules have been clearly included in their employment.

The court ordered the defendants to give the 18 workers official letters of termination, review and pay their terminal benefits and other entitlements.

M.M. Mailafiya represented the claimants, while Ali Sambo, a principal state counsel with the Taraba State Ministry of Justice, represented the first to fourth defendants.