Court dismisses Admarc’s bid to stay K52.3bn claim

The Industrial Relations Court (IRC) in Blantyre has dismissed a bid by Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (Admarc) to put aside proceedings in a case its former employees are claiming K52.3 billion compensation pending appeal.

In an affidavit filed by Alfred Majamanda, one of Admarc’s lawyers, the State produce trader said it was aggrieved with IRC’s decision in favour of the former employees.

Admarc said it will be difficult for it to recover the money from former employees in case its appeal succeeds in the High Court of Malawi after the compensation assessment and the payments.

But ruling on the matter yesterday, IRC deputy chairperson Tamanda Nyimba dismissed the notice of motion for stay of proceedings on the basis that it lacked merit.

He said justice in the case at hand would be better done if a remedy hearing or the notice of appointment to assess compensation is first heard.

Said Nyimba: “I am further persuaded to rule against the respondent’s motion because, if their appeal was to be unsuccessful, the applicants would be kept from the fruits of their litigation longer than necessary.

“I should emphasise that this is strictly a bird’s eye view of my reasons for so deciding. I shall set out my full or detailed reasoning which I shall hand down within my order on assessment of compensation.”

In an affidavit filed by lawyer Ackim Ndhlovu, the former employees asked the court to dismiss the application.

He observed that without the assessment of the compensation, the IRC ruling is incomplete and “not amenable therefore for appeal.”

The former Admarc employees quantified their compensation at K52.3 billion after the IRC on January 29 ruled in their favour in a case on unfair dismissal, unsafe and unfair labour practices.

The IRC faulted the manner Admarc and then minister of Agriculture Lobin Lowe conducted themselves during the restructuring process that led to the closure of the State produce trader last year.

According to the court documents, out of K52.3 billion compensation claims for 3 283 former Admarc employees, about K35.9 billion is for unfair dismissal while K16.4 billion is for unsafe and unfair labour practices.

In January 2023, Admarc fired its entire 4 000-plus staff effective February 1 2023 as part of its restructuring process. In a circular to the employees dated January 30 2023, then Admarc acting general manager Ethel Zilirakhasu said the company was implementing a 100 percent retrenchment and the last working day for all staff was January 31 2023.

In September 2022, the Ministry of Agriculture closed Admarc and sent its entire staff on paid leave to pave the way for restructuring.

However, it continued to perform some social services with selected staff members.

The ministry also cited low productivity by some company employees, suspected corruption perpetrated by some employees and unprocedural recruitment leading to excess workforce as other factors frustrating the growth of the company.