Court orders Govt to pay ex-Nytil workers Shs6b

The High Court in Jinja has ordered the government to pay terminal benefits amounting to Shs6.2b to 3,426 former workers of the defunct Nyanza Textile Industries (Nytil).
Nytil was established in 1954 by the colonial government as a parastatal company; however, post-independence governments ran the enterprise until 1995 when they sold it to Southern Range Nyanza Limited, which runs it to-date.

Prior compensation claims were dismissed by a Jinja Court in 2009, prompting the claimants to appeal in 2019, which ordered the government to compensate them after the Attorney General failed to instruct the Auditor General’s office to ascertain their claims.
Justice Faridah Shamilah Bukirwa Ntambi, in her ruling last Friday, said the 3,426 former workers are entitled to payment of their terminal benefits amounting to Shs6.2 billion.

One of the claimants, Mr Mallon Dobayo, sought and was granted permission by Court to pursue his claim independently, hence reducing the total number of verified claimants from 3,426 to 3,425.
Justice Bukirwa also ordered the government to pay Shs3 million for each of the 3,425 ex-workers as general damages.

“The workers being the successful parties are entitled to the costs of the suit, general damages to a tune of Shs3m for each, interest on general damages of 10 percent per annum from the date of judgement until payment in full,’’ she said in her ruling.

Justice Bukirwa also ordered the government to pay the Applicants interest on the terminal benefits, at the rate of 8 percent for the past 28 years, that is, from June 1995 until full payment has been made.
After the ruling, the Applicants’ lawyer, Mr Machel Nyambok, from M/S Alliance Advocates, said the judgment has been long overdue.

He said: “Since 1995, this case has been in Court, but the judgment is being welcomed with both hands because the Judiciary has done its work by rescuing the workers who have been yearning for their terminal benefits.”
Mr Nyambok said all relatives of those who died before the judgment are also entitled to receive their money and advised them to start extracting Letters of Administration.

Mr Francis Ssenabulya, a former Cost Accountant, said the government should pay them because it was remitting a lot of taxes from the defunct body, while Mr Moses Musaazi, 74, a former security guard, said “he is eagerly waiting for the money because he is currently renting”.
“I’m currently renting in Buikwe District, but when I get that money, I will go back to Masaka and construct a house to live in for the rest of my life,’’ he said.