By Isaac Salima:
The Industrial Relations Court (IRC) in Blantyre is expected to determine Friday the amount of compensation that should be paid to former Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (Admarc) employees.
Around 3,282 ex- Admarc staff members took their former employer to court over unfair dismissal and unlawful, unsafe labour practices.
In a notice of delivery of an order of assessment, signed by IRC Deputy Chairperson Tamanda Nyimba, it was stated that the matter is scheduled for today at 10:30am.
The case, which recently underwent an assessment for a K52.3 billion compensation, was previously ordered by the court to be paid to the former employees.
Nyimba, who has been hearing the case, instructed lawyers for both sides to submit their final arguments within 21 days before a final verdict is delivered.
The background to the case is that Admarc retrenched all its employees in 2022 as part of its restructuring process.
However, led by Alex Malikebu, the employees challenged the decision in court and the court sided with their applications.
The court ordered Admarc to pay the employees K35.8 billion for unfair dismissal, as well as K16.5 billion for unsafe and unlawful labour practices, totalling K52.3 billion.
However, Admarc’s legal team applied for a stay of the claim, arguing that it would be difficult to recover the money if they succeeded in their appeal after the compensation and payment had been made.
The court dismissed the application.
In today’s ruling, the amount the court ordered to be paid to the ex-employees may be increased or decreased depending on the assessments made.
