The High Court of Malawi has dismissed an application by Adma r c to p e n d implementation of an Industrial Relations Court (IRC) order for the company to pay K12.5 billion to 3 282 former employees.
The IRC had ordered the Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (Admarc) to make the payment as an in nitial part of the K25 billion compensation award.
Making his ruling in Blantyre on Monday, High Court Judge Allan Muhome said the court did not find persuasive reasons to tamper with the original decision of the IRC.
“And so Admarc shall pay the respondents half of the compensation within the next 14 days,” he said.
On November 15, the IRC ordered Admarc to pay the former employees K25 billion comprising K7 billion as compensation for unfair dismissal and K18 billion for unfair labour practices t.
But Admarc, through its lawyers Patrice Nkhono and Francisco Chikabvumbwa, asked the court to put aside execution of the earlier order pending appeal of the judgement.
On December 3, IRC deputy chairperson Tamanda Nyimba granted Admarc its prayer for a stay on condition that it should immediately pay 50 percent of the total compensation assessment awarded to the former employees.
Following that ruling, Admarc made a f resh application in the High Court for suspension of enforcement of the IRC judgement pending appeal.
Admarc argued that the compensation amount will ruin the company.
But Muhome, in his ruling, said that financial incapacity cannot be a good ground for a stay as there are plenty of financing options on the market.
In January 2023, Admarc fired its entire 4 000-plus staff effective February 1 2023 as part of its restructuring process.
