By Desire Emmanuel
The National Industrial Court has ordered a Lagos-based hospital, Reddington Hospital, to pay its former employee a total of N18 million after it faulted the conversion of the man from a full staff to a contract staff.
Justice A. N. Ubaka of the Lagos Division of the court gave the ruling after the employee, Mr Tunde Aderiye, dragged the organisation to the court for wrongful termination of his employment.
The court not only declared the termination of his employment wrongful, it also ordered Reddington Hospital to pay him N4.2 million redundancy pay, salary in lieu, and unused leave; N5.4 million remittance outstanding pension contributions with statutory interest; N9 million general damages; and N500,000 as cost within 30 days.
According to court documents, Aderiye said that he worked with Reddington Hospital for several years and suddenly, the hospital changed his status to contract staff without any discussion or agreement.
Aderiye maintained that he continued performing the same duties under the same supervision, yet the change stripped him of pension, leave benefits, and other entitlements, prompting him to bring the matter before the court.
Responding, Reddington Hospital told the court that Aderiye was placed on a contract arrangement due to internal restructuring and that he received emoluments under that arrangement. It argued that the variation was within management’s discretion and that he accepted the position by continuing to work.
The hospital, therefore, urged the court to hold that there is no need for a formal declaration of redundancy, and if there is such a requirement, the documentary and oral evidence proffered by the evidence shows clearly that there was a declaration of redundancy before the hospital had consultations with Mr Aderiye and finally informed him of being made redundant.
But countering the position of the hospital, Aderiye’s counsel, Folabi Kuti, asserted that his client’s employment was selectively terminated, adding that at no time was redundancy declared by the hospital, and even in the assumption that the same was declared, Mr Aderiye was the only staff member affected by the declaration, thereby making his termination selective and discriminatory.
Ruling on the matter, the judge said that an employer cannot reshape an existing contract, vary the character of employment, or withdraw statutory benefits without the worker’s clear, voluntary agreement; and that an employee’s rights cannot be displaced merely by administrative decisions.
Justice Ubaka further held that Reddington Hospital failed to comply with the provisions relating to redundancy as contained in the employee handbook which provides that before a staff member is declared redundant, there shall be consultation between management and the staff concerned and then the principle of last in first out (LIFO) shall apply and if in the management’s opinion, the junior officer in the line of merit and ability is greater than a staff with longer service, then the principle of (LILO) will be applied.
The judge declared that the reason given by the hospital was not valid to justify the termination of Mr Aderiye’s employment on the ground of redundancy, as it added did not apply international best practices.
On the issue of damages, Justice Ubaka declared that there was no doubt that Mr Aderiye has been injured by the method of termination of his employment which was seen as selective and amounted to discrimination.
The judge added that financial hardship was caused by the refusal of the hospital to pay Aderiye redundancy benefit when due, and the hospital’s refusal to remit his pension benefits for three years. The court therefore awarded the sum of N9 million as damages against the hospital.
The judge concluded by saying that Aderiye was subjected to an arrangement that did not comply with labour standards, which resulted in unjust deprivation of his accrued rights.
