Joyce Namugambe
Following the Jinja court dismissal of the compensation attempts by the employees of the now defunct Textiles industries in 2009, the high court in Jinja has issued a directive to government to pay out terminal benefits of 6.2 billion shillings to 3426 former employees of Nyanza textile industries, Nytil.
It should be noted that in 2019, the claimants lodged an appeal, leading to a ruling ordering the government to compensate them after the Attorney General failed to instruct the Auditor General’s office to verify their claims.
In her ruling given on Friday, 15 September 2023, Justice Faridah Bukirwa noted that all the number of 3426 employees are entitled to their terminal benefits worth 6.2 billion shillings. In addition, Justice Bukirwa stated that the government should also pay 3 million shillings to each of the former employees, and interest on the general damages of 10 percent per year from the date of judgment until the full payment is settled.
More still, Justice Bukirwa ordered that government should provide the applicants with interest on their terminal benefits at the rate of 8 percent for the past 28 years since 1995.
After the ruling, the lawyer to the applicants Machael Nyambok expressed gratitude and emphasised that it is the role of the judiciary to secure the long awaited benefits for the employees and urged the relatives of the deceased to go through rightful process to obtain letters of administration to claim their shares.
Nyanza textiles industries, Nytil was established in 1954 as a parastatal company under colonial rule and further operated under the post-independence governments until 1995 when it was sold to southern range Nyanza limited which is still currently operating.
