Ex-nursery teachers bid to get jobs back rejected
A volunteer nursery school teacher feeds children at Afraha Stadium IDP Camp, Nakuru County. More than 300 sacked nursery school teachers will not get their jobs back after the Employment and Labour Relations court in Nyeri dismissed their case. PHOTO | FRANCIS MUREITHI | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
- Mr Justice Byram Ongaya said the case was filed again five years later after being dismissed by a court and termed it an abuse of court process.
- The teachers had being employed by the municipal council but were fired in 1996 after the local authority conducted a redundancy audit on the performance and qualifications of nursery school teachers with in the municipality.
- The union then sought to have them reinstated and demanded their salary dues to be paid, but the case was dismissed by court in 2009.
More than 300 sacked nursery school teachers will not get their jobs back after the Employment and Labour Relations court in Nyeri dismissed their case.
Mr Justice Byram Ongaya said the case was filed again five years later after being dismissed by a court and termed it an abuse of court process.
The local government workers union had sued the Nyeri County government over the sacking of 337 nursery school teachers.
“This case was filed five years later after it was dismissed by the court making it difficult for this court to hold it. I find it as an abuse of court process and the law” said Mr Justice Ongaya
The teachers had being employed by the municipal council but were fired in 1996 after the local authority conducted a redundancy audit on the performance and qualifications of nursery school teachers with in the municipality.
UNPRODUCTIVE
The council stated that the teachers were not productive and laid them off and replace them with more qualified staff.
The union then sought to have them reinstated and demanded their salary dues to be paid, but the case was dismissed by court in 2009.
The union last year filed the case wanting the county government to reinstate them and pay their arrears.
According to the union’s lawyer, Mr Brian Otieno, the workers were reinstated back to work by the high court in Nyeri and were all issued with a circular with no break of service directing them to go back to their working station, but they municipal council did not allow them to be back.
In their petition the workers said their sacking was done unconstitutionally.
They told the court that the Nyeri county government, which took over from the Nyeri county council, should bear the burden and pay the their salaries backdated from 1996.
However, the county government through lawyer Wahome Gikonyo, opposed their demands and said that their demands were an abuse of court process.
The government also said they had never signed any contract with the workers and when they came into office, they were not at work and they were not part of the inherited workers from the defunct government.
