Reprieve has come the way of 27 employees who worked with the Federal Ministry of Works in the area of road construction for two years and were not paid, as a court has ruled in their favour.
Justice Sinmisola Adeniyi of the Abuja Division of the National Industrial Court has ordered the ministry to pay the 27 workers their outstanding salaries in the sum of N423.729 million for services rendered as members of staff of the Road Sector Development Team (RSDT) between October 2022 and May, 2024.
The judge further declared that the failure of the Minister of Works to pay the 27 workers their outstanding salaries under the guise of the closure of the World Bank and African Development Bank-funded projects amounted to a flagrant breach of the terms and conditions of their employment.
Justice Adeniyi also awarded them the sum of N5 million as general damages, N500,000 as costs of the action and directed that the judgment sums be paid within 30 days.
“It is unconscionable for the defendants to have retained the services of the claimants and accepted the road projects rendered by them for a period of two years and failed to pay their salaries for the said period,” the judge stated.
According to available court documents, the 27 workers submitted that they were employed under the Federal Ministry of Works to implement the Road Sector Development and Maintenance Programme and rendered services between October 2022 and May 2024, but were not paid their outstanding salaries before their services were terminated.
They averred that although the World Bank and African Development Bank-funded projects had ended, they continued, with the consent and authority of the Federal Ministry of Works, to execute and manage several ongoing federal road projects until the issuance of the letter dissolving the RSDT on May 14, 2024.
They further contended that despite repeated demands and correspondence requesting payment of their outstanding salaries, the Minister of Works failed to settle the sums due for the services they rendered.
In his defence, the Minister of Works, through his counsel, stated that the 27 workers were employees of the Road Sector Development Team and not of the Federal Ministry of Works, and that the RSDT was a semi-autonomous and self-accounting organisation funded by the International Development Association and later by the African Development Bank.
He argued that the Road Sector Development Team ought to have been joined as a necessary party to the proceedings, insisting that there was no contract between the 27 workers and the Ministry of Works and that the Federal Ministry of Works could not be held liable for their outstanding salaries.
Opposing the arguments, counsel to the 27 workers argued that the Road Sector Development Team was established, regulated and ultimately dissolved by the Federal Ministry of Works, lacked a separate legal personality, and that the letters of appointment of his clients together with the RSDT Framework clearly established an employment relationship with the Federal Ministry of Works.
Delivering judgment after evaluating documentary evidence and submissions of counsels, Justice Adeniyi held that the Road Sector Development Team was created, regulated and dissolved by the Federal Ministry of Works, lacked a separate legal personality, and that the evidence established that the Federal Ministry of Works was the employer of the 27 persons.
The judge therefore rejected the Minister of Works arguments on absence of privity of contract and non-joinder of the Road Sector Development Team.
Justice Adeniyi held that the principle upon which estoppel by conduct is founded is that the law should not permit an unjust departure by a party from an assumption of fact which he has caused another party to adopt for the purpose of their legal relations.
The judge further held that having retained their services, accepted the benefit of the projects executed after the cessation of external funding, and failed to issue any notice of fund cessation, they were estopped from relying on the closure of the World Bank and African Development Bank funded projects as a basis for refusing payment of their outstanding salaries.
Justice Adeniyi found that the minister and others neither disputed that the workers rendered services between October 2022 and May 2024 nor controverted the outstanding salaries, adding that the workers successfully proved their case on the balance of probabilities.
The judge consequently granted the declaratory and monetary reliefs sought by the workers.
