Football Association of Malawi (Fam) is expected to cough over K450 million in compensating former Flames coach Meck Mwase after being found guilty of unlawful termination of contract, redeployment and constructive dismissal.
Industrial Relations Court Chairperson Edina Bodole made the ruling yesterday, saying Fam’s conduct of putting Mwase on a low wage was discriminatory in nature.
She therefore ordered that the aggrieved party [Mwase] should make submissions of assessment on the matter.
The Court has also referred to the High Court the case in which Mwase, through his lawyer David Kanyenda, wanted compensation on claims based on tort (referring to defamation) but faulted Fam for firing Mwase, who the court said was a government employee and not for the association (Fam).
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Meanwhile, Mwase’s lawyer Kanyenda said he was satisfied with the ruling.
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“We succeeded on equal pay because the court has found that Meck Mwase was discriminated against because was placed on an inferior wage scale compared to the expatriate coaches.
“The court has ordered that it will access the compensation pay-out to Meck Mwase as back pay in order to restore the full value of his salary and equate the same to that paid to the expatriate coaches,” Kanyenda said.
Kanyenda said Mwase will likely receive K450 million in compensation.
“Going by Mario Marian Marinica’s salary, at the time he left the job was at over $8,500 and this multiplied by 36 months against the current value of dollar to kwacha which is about K1,700…it comes up to K520 million against K61.1 million kwacha which Mwase would have received in three years if he would see out his contract. This is according to his K1.7 million monthly salary then the difference is about K459 million,” he said.
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Fam General Secretary Alfred Gunda promised to come back to us as he said he was addressing members of staff alongside the new Fam President Fleetwood Haiya.
“We have been in a meeting with the new president and then we have been addressing staff,” Gunda said.
Mwase was hired as fulltime head coach for Flames in April 2019 on a one year contract before Fam offered him a two year deal in 2020 that should have elapsed in April 2023.
The case was brought before the courts in 2022 and was concluded within the same year pending judgement.
Fam fired Mwase with a year left on his contract in April 2022 at its executive committee meeting in Mangochi where they appointed Marinica, previously the technical director, as his replacement.
Later, Mwase was redeployed to coach Malawi under-23 national football team, but he turned down the offer, resorting to suing the local football governing body.
Earlier, Mwase guided the Flames to 2021 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) finals in Cameroon before being ‘demoted’ to an assistant coach as Marinica took charge of the team.
