After Ocean Bay Hotel had faced four cases at the Kanifing Industrial Tribunal, Mamudou Jobarteh and eleven other former employees of the same hotel have again sued the former employer of the hotel at the tribunal for wrongful termination, leave and transport allowance, public holidays, public holidays transport allowance, damages, and compensation.
They are claiming D647,272.79.
According to the particulars of their claim, the plaintiffs were at all material time working for the defendant as securities.
They claimed they were terminated between January and April 2012.
The claim stated that when they received their termination letters, they reported the matter to the managing director of SSHFC, who also told the plaintiffs that SSHFC had no hand in the matter, and that it was the sole responsibility of the Ocean Bay Hotel management.
The plaintiffs further claimed they reported the matter to the Labour Department for redress, adding that the Labour Department convened a tripartite meeting in which the defendant was requested to give the reason for terminating the plaintiffs, as no reason was stated in their termination letters.
They claimed the defendant mentioned during the meeting that the management of the hotel effected their termination based on Section 54 (2) of the Labour Act 2007, adding that sub-Section 4 (a&b) of the same Section and Section 143 (1) (a) of the same Act were not observed.
The plaintiffs stated that the defendant mentioned that a guard and a driver were caught stealing and their case is currently in court, which made the defendant to lose confidence in the other guards.
They further claimed that during the meeting at the Labour Department, it was concluded that the plaintiffs should be paid six months’ salary as compensation for unlawful termination or to reinstate them in order to resolve the matter amicably but this deal was not applied.
Aziz Bensouda, who represented the defendant, told the tribunal that he had to consult his client on whether to accept liability or deny the claim.
Garba Cham, Secretary General of the Gambia Workers’ Union, did not raise any objection.
The case was at this juncture adjourned.
