The Industrial Court has awarded Shs 14 million to a former Absa Bank data engineer, saying he was sacked unfairly after he was accused of removing electrical sockets from one of the branches without authorisation.
Eddy Muleme worked for the bank, formerly known as Barclays Bank, from July 2007 until his dismissal in July 2018. He rose through the ranks and became a Data Centre and Networks Engineer in March 2018.
That same year, the bank was moving its offices from Hannington Road to Kampala Road, and Muleme was heavily involved in the relocation.
The trouble started over electrical sockets. As the bank moved departments and equipment to the new premises, some workers removed electrical sockets from the old Hannington Road building, took them to Kampala Road and reused them there, while sending unused ones back to Hannington Road.
The idea was to cut costs, but a dispute broke out over whether Muleme had permission to do this.
On 20 June 2018, the bank suspended Muleme while it investigated claims that he removed the electrical installations without authorisation.
Five days later, he was invited to a disciplinary hearing held on June 28, 2018, but a month later, he was dismissed.
Muleme appealed, but on August 28, 2018, the bank’s appeal panel upheld his sacking. At the time, he was earning a gross salary of Shs 4.7 million per month.
Dissatisfied, Muleme took his case to the labour officer at Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA), who referred it to the Industrial Court.
Muleme’s lawyer, Godfrey Balondemu of Branmark Advocates, argued that the bank sacked Muleme for offences that did not even exist under its own disciplinary rules.
He said the bank never proved dishonesty, which is required for the charge it relied on, and that even the bank’s own witness admitted Muleme was not dishonest.
Balondemu also argued that the bank broke its own rules by refusing to give Muleme the investigation documents and witness statements he needed to defend himself.
The bank’s lawyer, Allan Waniala of S&L Advocates, argued that the dismissal was entirely lawful because Muleme fundamentally breached his employment contract by removing electrical installations without permission and performing work outside his role.
Waniala told the court that only certain senior officers, including the Project Head and the Chief Operating Officer, had the power to authorise removal of the sockets, and Muleme was not one of them.
During the hearing, Emmanuel Adubango, an officer in charge of electrical work at Absa, said Muleme never had permission to remove the sockets. He said he did not allow Muleme to remove the sockets.
Another witness, Peter Paul Emaju, the Project Lead, told the court he had never authorised any reuse of the head office sockets and pointed out that the bank had already signed an order for 400 brand-new sockets, which made it pointless for anyone to remove old ones.
Perhaps most damaging of all, Muleme himself admitted at the disciplinary hearing that he took the sockets. He admitted taking between 15 and 25 sockets from the Hannington Road building without following the bank’s formal approval process, saying he thought the matter was minor.
Because of this evidence, the court agreed with the bank that it had a valid reason to dismiss Muleme.
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Justice Anthony Wabwire Musana ruled that removing bank property without authority counted as a form of dishonesty under the bank’s rules, and that this kind of conduct breaks the trust between an employer and employee.
However, he said the bank fell short on fairness in how it conducted the disciplinary process.
For instance, he noted that although Muleme was allowed to question witnesses at his hearing, the bank refused to give him or his lawyer copies of witness statements beforehand, saying it was only an internal process.
Justice Musana said this effectively blindfolded Muleme and his lawyer, then Jude Byamukama, who, he said, was restricted to the role of a silent observer instead of letting him properly represent his client.
Because both fairness in procedure and fairness in substance are required for a lawful dismissal, Justice Musana ruled that Muleme’s sacking was, overall, unfair and unlawful, even though the bank had good reason to fire him.
As for compensation, he did not give Muleme everything he asked for and rejected his claims for severance pay, compensatory damages, repatriation allowance, pension interest and general damages, saying that a worker who commits misconduct cannot be rewarded with full terminal benefits.
Instead, Justice Musana awarded him four weeks’ pay worth Shs 4.7 million for the unfair procedure and an additional two months’ pay instead of notice worth Shs 9.4 million. So in total, Muleme was awarded Shs 14.2 million.
He also ordered that Muleme’s staff housing loan be handled fairly and that Absa Bank should not raise the interest rate to commercial levels. It should keep it at the original 9% per year.
