KAMPALA – The Makerere University staff tribunal has ordered for the reinstatement of Dr Juma Anthony Okuku and several others after being wrongfully dismissed from the University.
Dr Okuku, a Senior Lecturer at Makerere’s Department of Political Science in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences –CHUSS disclosed he was dismissed for refusing to award irregular marks to students.
Okuku is one of the 45 sacked staff by the institution in 2018 as he was sacked for alleged incompetence and inefficiency.
On January 4,2019, Dr Okuku filed an appeal to the university staff tribunal in which he sought to quash the decision of the appointments board to dismiss him from employment.
The application was made on grounds that University wrongfully removed Dr Okuku and several others from the payroll yet they were entitled to half pay as employees who had made an appeal and deemed to be on suspension.
In response to the application,the university invited the tribunal to dismiss the application since salary is only paid for work done as there’s no basis for an award of salary where an employee is terminated citing the dfcu bank limited Vs Donna Kimuli case of 2016.
Accordingly the university tribunal in its judgement noted that Dr Okuku and several others were entitled to remain on the payroll and half pay until the matter of the appeal had been subsequently concluded.
The University has been ordered to clear arrears inform of half pay from time the time they were scrapped off the payroll to the time of reinstatement to the payroll.
Additionally, the tribunal has ruled that all University employees who in future file appeals in the tribunal after they have removed from service by the appointment’s board be left on the payroll.
