Court rebuffs State House staff on transfers order
The Industrial Relations Court (IRC) in Blantyre has dismissed an application by 99 State Residences staff for sustenance of an order stopping government from transferring them to other duty stations.
The cour t had in October last year stopped State Residences from transferring the staff that included police officers, housekeepers and gardeners to various government ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs).
The court made the order following an application by McJoe Kuyenda and others who challenged State Residences management’s decision to transfer them and subsequently evict them from their institutional houses.
But IRC chairperson Austin Msowoya, making an order in discharging the interim relief last week, said he denied a motion for the order to remain in effect on account of failure by lawyer representing the police officers to appear in court.
He said this happened besides the fact that a notice of the proceedings was served on him.
The court, thereafter, allowed a motion by the Attorney General (AG) Thabo Chakaka-Nyirenda to discharge the order of the interim relief, meaning there is now nothing to stop the State Residences from transferring the staff, unless they sought a fresh motion for interim relief where both parties to the matter have to be heard.
Msowoya said the attitude by the lawyer representing the police officers not to attend the court was disrespectful to the authority of his court.
Appearing before High Court of Malawi Judge Chimbizgani Kacheche on July 19 2022 on the same matter, the concerned staff, through their lawyer Luciano Meckeus, argued that State Residences’ decision to transfer them to other MDAs was not fair because they were not consulted on the matter.
The applicants further argued that they applied for State Residences jobs and not MDAs, saying if there were transfers; they were supposed to be within State Residences establishment.
But in his submission, the AG raised a number of objections to the application for injunction, including that the applicants were civil servants who could not, therefore, choose when and where to be transferred to.
The applicants’ move followed a memo from the Office of the President and Cabinet, issued on May 22 2022, on the transfer of about 136 employees from State Residences to other MDAs.
The employees, some of whom joined State Residences in 1992, include security officers, gardeners and housekeepers.
PHOTOGRAPH: NATION
