By Isaac Salima:
Three former senior officers at Press Corporation Limited (PCL) have sued the conglomerate for unfair dismissal, unfair labour practices and discrimination following their ousting two years ago.
According to a document filed at the Industrial Relations Court, the matter is expected to come up for a full hearing next week Monday.
George Partridge, who was Group Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Elizabeth Mafeni, who was the Group Finance Officer, and Bernard Ndau, who was the Group Administrative Executive and General Counsel, were dismissed on December 10, 2021, in what appeared to be ‘retrenchment,’, according to their arguments.
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In their submission, the three argue that PCL was economical with the truth regarding their ‘retrenchment’.
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They claim that the conglomerate unfairly and unlawfully removed them from their positions under the guise of a functional review undertaken by the company, and that they were never consulted during the exercise.
The court documents further show that before being fired, Mafeni and Ndau had entered into discussions with PCL to change their employment status from ‘permanent or open-ended terms contracts’ to three-year contracts before PCL abandoned the discussions.
The firm later instituted a ‘functional review,’ which, according to the two, was done without justifiable reason.
The trio contends in the statement of claim that the Terms of Reference for the functional review required the consultant conducting the review, Management Consulting Solutions, to consult with all employees during the process, “but this was never done”.
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The applicants also claim that they were discriminated against in the way they were treated compared to other employees.
They also allege that the failure to consult was a departure from PCL’s established practice of consulting employees during retrenchments.
Regarding Partridge, who was also an executive director on the board of PCL, court records show that he was discriminated against as “clandestine meetings were held behind his back”.
PCL CEO Ronald Mangani said in an interview yesterday that the conglomerate was aware of the matter.
“We will present our submissions in court,” Mangani said.
