Contradictions in UB employees lawsuit

GOTHATAONE MOENG
Staff Writer | Thursday May 16, 2013 00:00

Director of Financial Services at UB Mendel Nlanda yesterday told court that although the plaintiffs received the letters informing them they would be re-graded to Accounts Officers; it was not the intention to move them to that position. He said the letters contained an error and were instead supposed to state that the employees would be regraded to Accounts Assistant. He said the restructuring exercise, which took place in 2000, was not intended to elevate or promote anybody, but to transfer employees horizontally. Mlanda said university management met with the plaintiffs at the time to explain that there was an error in the letters they had received.  While being questioned by his lawyer Bokani Machinya of Collins Newman and Company, he said although the university tried to explain the error to the plaintiffs, they were adamant that the letters should be formalised.

'They did not accept management's position that an error had occurred. They argued that the letter should remain as it was presented to them,' he said.He was giving evidence in the case in which four employees in the Department of Financial Services at the UB are suing the university over a 2000 restructuring drive.  The employees argue that even though they received correspondence informing them that they would be re-graded to the position of Accounts Officers, they were deployed to the lower position of Accounts Assistants.

In his evidence yesterday, Nlanda stated that under the old structure, the plaintiffs were Senior Accounts Clerks, and that position was converted to Accounts Assistant under the new structure. He said in the meetings that the department management held with the plaintiffs, management explained this conversion. He further said during the meetings the plaintiffs argued that being made Accounts Assistants was a demotion.  He said management asserted that this move was not a demotion but a change of designation or  nomenclature. 'The same applied to those who were senior accounts officers before, who, under the new structure, became accounts officers,' he said.The trial is expected to continue this morning.