The Employment and Labour Relations Court directed the lender to pay the award within 30 days.
The judge said the bank treated three categories of employees differently when paying out terminal dues.
Justice Mathew Nduma Nderi today said the top lender had discriminated against the retrenched workers.
Former Barclays Bank of Kenya #ticker:BBK senior managers have won a case they had filed challenging the computation of their exit packages after they were retrenched in 2011.
The lender will now be forced to part with over Sh600 million in terminal dues to 105 staff it had sacked seven years ago after the Employment and Labour Relations Court directed Barclays to pay the award within 30 days.
Justice Mathew Nduma Nderi today said the top lender had discriminated against its former workers in the manner it calculated their terminal dues.
“This court concurs with lawyer Titus Koceyo for the retrenchees that their rights were violated and discriminated against by their employer in the manner it tabulated their exit emoluments,” he ruled in his 14-page judgement.
He said Barclays Kenya violated Section 40 of the Employment Act 2007 which requires employers to grant its sacked employees their proper dues.
“At its own discretion the bank granted the claimants one and half months’ salary for each completed year of service and also used its discretion to cap the number of completed years payable to each of the former bankers,” Justice Nderi noted.
Mr Koceyo had told the judge that some of the retrenchees were fraudulently paid for 16 years which they had not served and others who had worked for 40 years were denied the hard earned dues.
Therefore, Mr Koceyo urged the judge to allow the claim and order the bank to pay the difference it retained at the exit time.
In his judgement, Justice Nderi said: “It is not in doubt that all the employees who had worked for more than 16 years, some even up to 40 years were deprived of large amounts to which they were lawfully entitled by fact of their long service.”
'Total disregard'
He said the many years the managers had given to the respondent (Barclays Bank) were “treated casually, in total disregard of the service, blood and sweat they had over those years given to their employer.”
The judge said the bank treated the three categories of employees differently. The groups were those who had worked for less than 16 years, those who had worked for 16 years and those who had worked for more than 16 years.
All the retrenchees were uniformly paid terminal dues, with the judge noting those who had worked for more than 16 years were discriminated against.
“Accordingly the 105 claimants succeed in their demand and each of them is awarded as prayed,” Justice Nderi said.
He ordered the bank to pay them from the time they were retrenched January 31 2011.
The amounts will be paid with an interest at courts rates of 12 per cent from the time of exit to payment in full.
The judge dismissed a prayer that the 105 be paid leave allowances. The former staff were seeking special damages of Sh301,855,477.
Justice Nderi also ordered the bank to pay costs of the suit.
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Note: The results are not exact but very close to the actual.
