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National Bank ordered to pay former executive Sh7m

emma

Former National Bank executive Emma Mwongeli. FILE PHOTO | NMG

The National Bank of Kenya (NBK) has been ordered to pay a former executive Sh7.1 million in exit dues for irregular termination.

The lender was found to have violated the labour laws when it terminated the services of its former director for institutional banking, Emma Mwongeli Mwema.

In her 22 page judgement, Lady Justice Maureen Onyango said that the rights of Ms Mwema had been violated.

Justice Onyango ruled that although Ms Mwema wanted a mutual separation with her employer, “she was lured into resigning by the human resource director by the threat she faced imminent dismissal if she did not immediately resign.”

“I find that the termination of the claimant’s employment was procedurally unfair and a violation of Section 43 of the Employment Act which requires that an employer proves the reason for termination,” Justice Onyango stated in the ruling.

She ruled the manner in which Ms Mwema was axed justifies she be compensated for eight months instead of 12 which she had sought.

For the illegal sacking, the court has ruled, she be compensated Sh5.7 million and another Sh1.4 million for being sacked without a three months’ notice.

Further, the bank was ordered to pay her costs of the case which will be assessed by the deputy registrar of the high court.

She was sacked on February 16, 2015 having joined NBK on February 1, 2013.

Through her lawyer, Titus Koceyo, Ms Mwema had urged the court to declare that she had been discriminated against but the judge said she did not find enough proof to arrive at that conclusion.

The judge stressed that there is no doubt the complainant was humiliated and embarrassed by her former employer “when she was sent out of a meeting, transferred from the executive floor to 13th floor, to an office without furniture.”