The Industrial Relations Court (IRC) has awarded three former Press Corporation Limited (PCL) top executives K14 billion as compensation for unfair dismissal and unlawful labour practices.
The three are former chief executive officer George Patridge, former group financial controller Elizabeth Mafeni and former company secretary Benard Ndau.
They were dismissed in 2021 following a functional review initiated by PCL board of directors and conducted by a consultant.
. I Nation
At the time of their dismissal, Mafeni received K481 million, Patridge got K452 million while Ndau was paid K179 million.
Initially, the trio filed a K33 billion claim, arguing that they were unfairly dismissed by the conglomerate and while the court ruled in their favour, the figure was trimmed to the K14 billion, which will be split into different amounts and shared among them.
In their claim, Ndau demanded K6.3 billion, Patridge filed a K7.4 billion claim and Mafeni made a K19.4 billion demand, translating to approximately K33 billion.
But according to the IRC ruling, Ndau has been awarded K3 billion while Patridge will receive K4 billion and Mafeni will walk away with K8 billion.
The IRC ruling states that while consultations were supposed to be part of the functional review which led to the dismissal of the three executives, they were not offered options for either lower salaries or considerations for redeployment; hence, they were unfairly dismissed.
According to lawyer for the three, John Suzi Banda, the court awarded compensation to the three upon considering factors like the three executives’ remuneration and the period they worked for PCL, as such, reduced the figure to K14 billion from the initial K33 billion.
Banda, in his claim file on behalf of his clients, argued that in coming up with the K33 billion as compensation, they took into consideration the rate of inflation between December 2021 and December 2024.
PCL lawyer Patrick Mpaka was, however, not available for immediate comment.
But in his argument before the court, he said while there might have been some unprocedural errors, PCL believed that substantial payments were already made to the three upon getting relieved of their duties.
In an October 2024 ruling, the IRC found that while consultations were supposed to be done during the functional review, the ex-PCL executives were not consulted.
PCL is the largest conglomerate in Malawi and has interests in banking, telecommunications, energy, real estate and hospitality
