Court Orders Firm To Pay Ex-Staff $10,000

The National Industrial Court, Abuja, on Tuesday ordered Gidan Haki Partners Limited. to pay an ex-staff Mr Yan Keyong, 10,000 dollars within 30 days.
The payment as ordered by the court was for the outstanding balance of his entitlements.
The Tide reports that Keyong was employed by the defendant for a six month contract.
He had approached the court to seek redress when the defendant relied on an irrevocable undertaking that he would be paid the balance of his entitlement when the client they executed the contract for, paid them.
Delivering judgment, Justice Rakiya Haastrup held that evidence before the court showed that the parties had a working relationship and the issue of the defendant being indebted to the claimant was not in dispute.
Haastrup further said that it was the principle of common law that when parties had written agreement, it superseded any oral or verbal agreement.
She added that the law stipulated that documentary evidence was the best.
She said the claimant having worked for the defendant deserved to be paid his entitlement and the content irrevocable undertaking signed by the claimant should not be misinterpreted or relied on, not to pay him.
She therefore said the undertaking cannot be used to tie down the claimant’s entitlement.
She said that in determining the case, the court adopted the sole issue distilled by the claimant’s counsel in his written address.
According to the judge, the issue was whether from the totality of the evidence, the claimant was entitled to the reliefs sought.
The judge ordered that the defendant should pay the claimant the balance of 10,000 dollars.
She also ordered payment of N100,,000 as cost of the prosecuting the suit, against the defendant.
Mr Umoru Jibril, the claimant’s counsel, had submitted that his client was employed by the defendant in May, 2014 as a Technical Filter and Translator.
Jibril averred that the claimant was employed as part of the team to construct a modern abattoir for the Sokoto State government.
The counsel added that the claimant was paid 3,000 dollars and N1 million and was promised the payment of his balance within three months.
He said that the claimant made several attempts to get the balance, but was never paid, on the grounds that the irrevocable understanding he signed stated that he will be paid when the Sokoto State government paid the company.