Know Your Rights! Employee Gets Sh191,000 For Unlawful Termination

When it comes to being fired it has to be in accordance to the Employment Act.

But for one Edward Shabaya he was sacked on grounds of negligence leading to loss of confidence. His termination of service was also unprocedural as the sacking letter was signed by the branch manager of KK Security limited and not the human resource manager.

This man could not take it lying down and so he filed a case in court claiming wrongful dismissal, unpaid terminal benefits, arrears and payment in lieu of notice and damages for defamation.

According to The Standard Mr. Shabaya told the court that he was sacked because he did not record the incident in the Control Room Log Sheet. His argument was that the company procedures did not require him to make entries in the Control Room Log Sheet if the incident was not major, like this particular case.

The paper also reports that the court decided to award him an equivalent of 10 months gross wages amounting to Sh135,300 and Sh56,680 as unpaid overtime and also costs of the case.

As an employee what would be your reaction if it happened to you? You have done as instructed but you get fired for it even after working there for more than 10 years. Would you sue or just let it go? If you sued and lost the case what happens to you?

Here is what Kenyans had to say on the issue.

“If the same happened to me I would definitely sue. Working for a company for more than 10 years means you have mastered its procedures so why would a single incident get me fired? It means there is something more to that. If I lost the case I would still be glad that I tried instead of keeping silent,” argues Agnes Mueni an accountant at a renowned bank.

Hamisi Maulid* is of the opinion that silence would be better.

“I do not see the logic behind suing my former employer. We live in a world where everyone knows someone. Suing will make it harder for me to get employment elsewhere. I do not want to spoil my chances. I would take it positively, ask for my recommendation letter and start job searching again. I prefer that to wasting time in court rooms waiting for an uncertain ruling by the judge,” Mr. Maulid explains.

Ms. Mueni concludes by saying that suffering in silence never helped anybody so it is better to speak up for yourself because no one else will.

What do you think about this ? Let’s keep the conversation going.

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