TAWU claim against Limkokwing dismissed

CHANDAPIWA BAPUTAKI
Staff Writer | Monday August 16, 2010 00:00

Before dismissing the application, Ruhukya said that section 17 of the Act provides that a contract of employment for a specified piece of work, without reference to time shall, unless otherwise lawfully determined, terminate when the work specified in the contract is completed, or the period of time for which the contract was made expires.

The judge said it was clear that fixed term contracts are dealt with differently from contracts for an indefinite period. 'Fixed term contracts terminate at the end of a clearly defined period. In the circumstances the applicant's case must fail and I so hold,' he said.

The judge stated that the affected employees knew that their contracts were due to run out at the end of July 2010. He said in electing to release the affected employees before the end of July 2010 and paying them for the remaining period of their contract, Limkokwing University did not breach the provisions of Section 17 of the Act.  'Put in other words, no prejudice was occasioned to the affected employees. They got what they were entitled to in terms of their contracts. They were not short-changed. Does the fact that the respondents elected not to renew the affected employees' contracts after there were informed of the drastic reduction in new students sponsorships result in unfairness? I think no,' Ruhukya said.

It would, in his opinion, have been a different story altogether had the respondents elected to renew the contracts and shortly thereafter received notification of a reduction in student sponsorship by government.  He said this would have tied the institutions' hands by virtue of the principles in law forbidding an employer from terminating fixed term contracts in the absence of material breach by the employee. 'In such circumstances the applicant could be heard to complain,' he said.

The brief facts of the case, as according to Judge Ruhukya, are that the institution was informed in early May 2010 that only 400 students would be sponsored by the government in the new academic year.

The institution received the information with a lot of apprehensiveness in that it represented a drastic reduction in the number of students that would be enrolled in the new academic year.

Ruhukya said it was a common fact that the institution issued letters to all its 13 employees on fixed contracts that their contracts would not be renewed. The applicants, TAWU, representing the affected employees, argued that not renewing contracts, giving a reason why it was not renewing and terminating the contracts before they were due to expire and paying them out the employees were made redundant and should therefore be accorded the same status as the other employees on indefinite contract.

Joao Carlos Salbany from Salbany and Torto Attorneys appeared for the applicants and Sipho Ziga of Armstrongs Attorneys represented Limkokwing University.