Court Orders NPA To Pay N30m To 19 Sacked Workers

The Lagos division of the National Industrial Court of Nigeria (NICN) has ordered the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) Plc to pay over N30 million in overdue salaries and benefits to 19 workers who were illegally sacked by the port authority.

Justice S. H. Danjidda gave the order while delivering judgment in the nearly two-decade dispute between the workers and the NPA.

The judge recognised that the workers, originally engaged as technical trainees, are legally considered employees of the authority and entitled to full pay and benefits.

The claimants, including Kuje Alanana Godwin, Sadi Lawan Danbazau, Abubakar Haruna and others, had filed the suit in 2019, arguing that after completing their training in 2007, the NPA failed to assign them to appropriate departments and stopped paying their salaries and allowances.

They urged the court to decide on their employment status and over N671 million in overdue entitlements, plus damages.

But the NPA argued that the claimants were just trainees whose engagement ended when it closed its Technical Training Centre in 2006.

The respondent also claimed that the suit was statute-barred under the provisions of an earlier Ports Act.

Justice Danjidda rejected this legal objection, holding that the law cited had been repealed and could not prevent the case from proceeding.

The court affirmed its jurisdiction to hear the matter.

On the substantive issues, the judge found that the claimants had successfully demonstrated, through documentary evidence and the defendant’s conduct, that they were indeed employees.

The court held that the NPA issued the applicants staff identity cards, paid salaries, enrolled them in pension schemes, and recalled them after an earlier closure of the training school, actions which established an employer-employee relationship.

The court further held that although the claimants were initially placed on probation, the NPA’s failure to either confirm or terminate their appointments within the stipulated period meant their employment was automatically confirmed by operation of law.

Justice Danjidda further described the NPA’s continued refusal to deploy and remunerate the workers as a “clear breach” of contractual and statutory obligations.

He ruled that their purported disengagement did not follow due process and was therefore null and void.

Consequently, the judge ordered the NPA to immediately deploy the claimants to appropriate departments and place them on the correct cadre levels.

The judge also directed the port authority to pay each claimant a monthly salary of N38,132 from April 2007 to the date of judgment, along with annual leave and Christmas bonuses for the same period.

In addition, the court awarded N20 million in general damages for the hardship suffered by each of the claimants and N2 million as litigation costs.

The judgment sum is to attract 10 per cent annual interest until fully paid.

However, the court declined to grant relief relating to automatic promotions and additional compensation tied to hypothetical career progression, stating that promotion remains a privilege, not a right.