Police Service Commission Chairman, Mike Okiro
Ade Adesomoju, Abuja
The National Industrial Court has
ordered the Police Service Commission and its Chairman, Mr. Mike Okiro,
to pay the allowances and accumulated salaries of 43 employees of the
commission since 2013 when they were employed.
In a judgment delivered by Justice E. D.
Isele, a copy of which was obtained by our correspondent on Wednesday,
the court held that the 43 plaintiffs were duly employed according to
statutes, and so must be paid.
The plaintiffs, 43 in number, had
through their counsel, Mr. Samuel Ogala, of Falana & Falana
Chambers, filed the suit on February 3, 2015, claiming that they were
employed by the Police Service Commission in 2013.
They claimed to have resumed their duties between April and June 2013.
They claimed to have been going to work since then but were not paid either salaries or their statutory 28 days allowance.
They claimed that at a point the PSC tactically withdrew their appointment letter under the guise of verification.
Okiro and the PSC, who were the two respondents in the suit, did not participate in the proceedings of the court,
But during the proceedings, the
plaintiffs’ lawyer maintained that the defendants could not unilaterally
terminate the employment of the plaintiffs without recourse to the
provisions of the law regulating their employment.
The judge agreed with Ogala and held that the plaintiffs were entitled to be paid.
“The right of a worker to be paid his
full wages is automatically incorporated into the contract of his
employment whether the worker is in civil service, some other branch of
public service or in the private sector, and even where a public servant
is unable to perform his duties by reason of illness he is still
entitled to be paid his wages,” Justice Isele ruled.
He said that there was no doubt that the plaintiffs were employed by the PSC.
He ruled, “There is no doubt that the claimants were employed by the defendants.
“Strangely, however, the defendants did
not participate in the entire proceedings even for one day in the course
of the proceedings. The proofs of service in the case file tended to
show that the 1st defendant (PSC) and the 2nd defendant (Okiro) were
always served but they never appeared whenever the case was called or
being heard.
“It is hereby declared that the refusal
of the 1st defendant to pay the claimants their 28 days allowance,
salaries and allowances from the date of employment till date is
illegal, null, void and constitute a violation of the provision of
Section 10 (3) (b) of the Police Service Commission Act, 2001, Rules
040102 and 130105 of the Public Service Rules and the Police Service
Conditions of Service paragraph 4.1 (C) and paragraph 4-2(e).
“The 1st and 2nd defendants are hereby
mandatorily directed to pay the claimants forthwith their first 28 days
allowances, salaries, allowances of equivalent rank in the Civil Service
of the Federation commencing from the date of their employment to when
the claimant’s employment is properly determined in accordance with the
provisions of the law regulating the claimants’ employment with the
defendants.”
The judge held that the judgment must be complied with within 30 days.
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