The National Industrial Court sitting in Calabar has ordered the Cross River State Government, the Cross River State Waste Management Board, and seven others to pay ₦30 million in damages to Joseph Fernandez and five others for unfair labour practices.
The judgement, delivered by Hon. Justice Sanusi Kado, followed a suit filed by the claimants on behalf of abandoned and wrongfully terminated workers of the state’s Waste Management Agency.
Justice Kado ruled that the refusal of the state government and its agency to issue letters of employment or pay the workers their due salaries constituted a clear violation of the Labour Act. He described the defendants’ conduct as “unfair and unlawful,” ordering that payment be made within 30 days, with a 10 per cent annual interest if delayed.
Court records show that the claimants — Joseph Fernandez and five others — were employed between 2010 and 2014 after undergoing interviews conducted by the agency. They told the court that, despite working diligently for years, the agency failed to issue them formal employment letters as promised.
The workers further testified that after the board and management of the agency were dissolved in December 2015, they were abandoned while new staff were hired to replace them. They added that when they continued working without pay, they eventually staged a peaceful protest at the governor’s office in June 2016 to demand their unpaid salaries but were instead told by the agency’s general manager to stop reporting for duty.
The Cross River Government and the Waste Management Board, however, argued that the claimants were merely casual staff hired for ad hoc duties and were paid only for days actually worked. They claimed payment delays began in 2014 due to errors in attendance records and that the workers’ engagement officially ended in December 2015 when a new management took over.
The defence counsel contended that the workers’ employment was not of “statutory flavour” and that they had failed to substantiate their claims with credible evidence, urging the court to dismiss the case as “frivolous and without merit.”
In response, the claimants’ counsel maintained that the workers could not be classified as casual employees since they had worked for more than three months — the legal limit under the Labour Act — without a formal appointment letter.
Delivering judgement, Justice Kado faulted the agency’s failure to issue letters of employment, describing it as a breach of statutory duty. He held that the defendants’ justification that the workers were casual staff was “untenable and contrary to law.”
“The defendants cannot benefit from their own wrong,” Justice Kado stated, adding that the workers had suffered trauma as a result of the government’s actions.
In addition to the ₦30 million awarded for unfair labour practices, the court also ordered the defendants to pay ₦500,000 as costs to the claimants. Justice Kado directed that all monetary aspects of the judgement must be settled within 30 days, after which a 10 per cent annual interest would apply.
