Court orders LBIC to pay Owolabi, 8 ors N24.045 million

 

Admin I Wednesday, Jan. 17, 2024

 

IKOYI – The National Industrial Court of Nigeria, NICN, sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos has ordered the Lagos Building and Investment Company Plc to pay Olatunbosun Owolabi and eight others the sum of N24, 045, 936.85 as their terminal benefit.

The court also awarded cost to the tune of N200,000 in favour of the claimants.

In ordering the payment, Justice Salisu Danjidda declared that the payments made by the LBIC to Olatunbosun Owolabi and 8 others upon termination of their employment were under-calculated and ought to be calculated in accordance with the provisions on severance benefits contained in the Company’s Staff Handbook.

Justice Danjidda also granted an order compelling LBIC to pay Folasade Taiwo the sum of N84,346.41, being the aggregate of her outstanding entitlement payment.

The Claimants- Olatunbosun Owolabi and 8 others had submitted that LBIC Plc failed to compute their redundancy benefit using the Collective Bargaining Agreement and or the Company’s Handbook after being relieved of their jobs on the ground of reorganisation of the company.

But the defendant, LBIC Plc maintained that it was not under any obligation to honour the agreement brokered by the Association of Senior Staff of Banks, Insurance and Financial Institutions (ASSBIFI) on behalf of Olatunbosun Owolabi and 8 others but honoured the same on compassionate grounds.

LBIC averred further that Owolabi and 8 others are not allowed to reverse their position two years after being paid their benefits the amount brokered by their representative, and urged the Court to dismiss the case in its entirety.

Counsel to LBIC submitted that the 2005 Collective Bargaining Agreement had expired in 2007 and that Owolabi and 8 others and the company not being a party to it could not have, breathed a new lease of life into it by incorporating or referencing it into the terms of employment or the employee handbook.

However, counsel to Owolabi and 8 others submitted that by the combined reading of Termination letters, Statements of Account as well as the admission of the Defendant, and the clear evidence of his clients’ witnesses, the Court will find that his clients’ employments were terminated on the ground of redundancy.

“It is the submission of counsel that imports of what the Lagos Building Investment Company described as “strategic reorganization aimed at repositioning the bank for growth and profitability” cannot have a different meaning from what is meant by redundancy as specifically used by the company in other documents”, he told the court.

After hearing arguments, Justice Salisu Danjidda held that Lagos Building Investment Company Plc does not need to expressly state that Olatunbosun Owolabi and 8 others are “declared” redundant before a claim for redundancy benefits will arise.

The Court observed that LBIC Plc in the exhibit tendered admitted to paying Owolabi and 8 others the full and final settlement of the redundancy benefits which was brokered by the Association of Senior Staff of Banks, Insurance and Financial Institution (ASSBIFI) and dully accepted by the staffs.

Justice Danjidda held that there is nothing like ex-gratia contained in the Owolabi and 8 others’ letters of employment or Lagos Building Investment Company’s handbook as contended by the firm and that the payment made to them was an ex-gratia payment done in accordance with the terms of their agreement.

“Judgment is entered accordingly with a cost of N200,000 in favour of the Claimants against the Defendant.” The Court ruled.