A woman hired to work in the main kitchen at Kyambogo University has been awarded Shs 19 million by the court after it was established that the university kept her on short contracts for years while putting her colleagues on permanent contracts.
In May 2000, Magdalene Atono was offered a job at Uganda Polytechnic Kyambogo (UPK) as a casual labourer earning Shs 40,000 per month.
The employment letter noted that the polytechnic could end her employment without notice should it be in the interest of the Polytechnic to do so.
In 2003, the polytechnic merged with two other institutions to form Kyambogo University, and her services moved with it.
In March 2004, the university wrote to say her original letter had given no time frame. Her job was reset as a six-month temporary appointment, renewable only on application.
Atono kept serving successive 6-month contracts outside the new structure until 2009. That structure, which took effect in January 2005, placed the kitchen attendant job under support staff on salary scale M15 and required one to only have an O-level certificate.
In 2007, she earned a certificate in Hotel and Institutional Catering from the university itself. She said the university secretary acknowledged and commended her for it. She expected it to lead to a permanent job.
Some of her colleagues, meanwhile, were promoted. These include: Daniel Muhumuza, Najjuma Musisi, Ben Tumwesigye and Christine Achan. Like Atono, all began as casual workers and were placed on M15, paid Shs 260,729 a month.
When the turn came to promote Atono, she was only given a one-year contract on November 5, 2009. She was put on a non-existent salary scale, M20, which is usually for group employees.
In court, the university said Atono was a contract worker with no right to permanent benefits. Its witness, Arthur Katongole, then acting University Secretary, said she was not shortlisted for the permanent kitchen attendant posts advertised in 2012 because she lacked a credit in English.
Justice Linda Lillian Tumusiime-Mugisha did not accept the university’s explanation, noting that by 2009, the terms and conditions of service required that the person’s academic qualifications be an “O” level certificate and nothing else.
“In the circumstances, [the university’s] argument that [Atono] was not confirmed because she lacked a credit in English cannot hold,” she said.
The English requirement, she noted, appeared only in the July 2012 advertisement.
She said Kyambogo did not adduce any evidence to justify Atono’s exclusion, wondering why the Appointments Board placed her in a category that did not exist and never considered her for confirmation.
The court also questioned the short contracts themselves.
“It seems to us that maintaining her on short-term temporary contracts, which were repeatedly renewed for several years, was a means for [Kyambogo] to avoid its obligations towards permanent staff,” Justice Tumusiime-Mugisha noted, adding that to ignore Atono’s years of service, “would be a travesty of justice”.
On November 30, 2012, the university told Atono that her last contract, running from August 1 to December 31, 2012, would not be renewed. The university said it had adopted a policy of phasing out temporary appointments.
However, the court said Atono’s years of service counted as one continuous period, but it held that the non-renewal was lawful.
In the end, Justice Tumusiime-Mughisha declared that Atono was unfairly discriminated against, contrary to section 5(4) of the Employment Act.
She ordered Kyambogo to pay Magdalene Atono Shs 8.9 million in salary arrears and Shs 10 million in exemplary damages.
On her claim for unpaid NSSF contributions, the court found no evidence on record that the university had remitted them.
Atono was represented by Prof. John Jean Barya, a former lecturer at Makerere University’s School of Law, while Cyrus Baguma held brief for Kyambogo University.
