A National Industrial Court of Nigeria sitting in Jos, on Tuesday, adjourned until April 5th for report of settlement in a case between Jos Electricity Distribution Company Limited (JED) and the 45 disengaged staff of the company.
Justice Kenneth Amadi fixed the date for report, after parties involved debated in the court on the issue of settlement talks.
When the case was called on Tuesday, Barr Anya Izang announced her appearance for the plaintiffs – 45 disengaged staff- while Professor Shaaka S. Shaaka announced his appearance for the defendants – the Jos Disco.
Recalled that 45 disengaged staff of Jos Electricity Distribution Company (JED) had sued their former employer before the National Industrial Court of Nigeria sitting in Jos over alleged non-payment of their entitlements amounting to N16.5m.
The disengaged staff also urged the court to order the company to pay the sum of N100 million damages caused to them by the company after it disengaged them on 13th, October, 2017 without notice.
They told the court that Jos Disco had owed them one month salary in lieu of notice to all the disengaged staff, 30% balance for the month of September, 2017 and payments of their leave grants.
They also claimed that others entitlements the company owed them included; payment of their house rents, payment of transfer allowances and non-remittances of their pension contributions, which all the entitlements amounted to N16.5 million.
During today’s sitting the counsel to the defendants, Prof. Shaaka S. Shaaka said his clients had called the disengaged staff for settlements and had even paid some settlement money to some of the disengaged staff.
In her response, the counsel to the plaintiffs, Anya Izang said the claims by the defendants’ counsel were untrue, adding that: “Nobody called us for settlements and nobody paid any money to my clients, if what he was saying is true let him produce the evidence of payment before the court.”
After the debate, the presiding judge, Justice Kenneth Amadi adjourned the case until April 5th for report of settlement between the parties.
