Lobels employee lodges appeal

Documents seen by The Zimbabwean show that former transport manager, John Nyakamha, has filed a ‘notice of intention to appeal’ against the company, although a date has not been fixed for the case to be heard by the superior court.

The matter arose from a 2001 suspension over an act of misconduct involving another employee under Nyakamha’s charge. The suspension was later quashed by a labour court, which ordered the company to reinstate the former transport manager or pay him off. An arbitrator ruled that Nyakamha should be paid an amount equivalent to three years’ salary.

Nyakamha demanded Z$1,3 billion and other benefits, including the vehicle he was using and a cell phone, but the company only gave him Z$20 million in 2005. He has claimed the original owners of the company, Lobel Brothers, were willing to settle, but the situation changed when Zanu (PF) fronts took over the company in 2001.

Lobels has claimed that Nyakamha accepted Z$20 million as a final payment but then went behind its back and demanded more. Makarau, in her judgement last year, upheld the company’s view that the amount paid had been sufficient. She said the figure of Z$1,3 billion had been drafted by Nyakamha himself and only handed to the first arbitrator in the case, identified as Chavura, for ‘certification’.

A second arbitrator, former judge C.H. Lucas ruled on January 21, 2008 that the amount paid tom Nyakamha was only Z$1,7 million short and the amount should be paid with 30 per cent interest.

Nyakamha insisted that the lower courts and Lucas had misinterpreted the phrase ‘three years salary at current rates’ in the original judgement. He said by the time he got paid, the original amount had been severely eroded by inflation to the point of being ‘worthless’. He claims this was a deliberate ploy by the company to underpay him.

Makarau ruled that Nyakamha’s appeal was out of time and that the Arbitration Act which he sought to use to settle the case was more suited to international business disputes and not labour matters.

Lobels is expected to contest Nyakamha’s appeal.