By SCM Staff Writer I Monday, October 13, 2025
IKOYI, Lagos – Melrose Books & Publishing, a major publishing house has been ordered to pay a suspended worker more than six years’ worth of backdated salary and allowances after a judge ruled his “indefinite suspension” was a shocking employment law blunder.
The Lagos-based Melrose Books & Publishing must now cough up an enormous sum to their former employee, named only as Ade, within the next 30 days.
The massive payout covers 68 months of salary—from October 2015 to June 2021—plus a string of annual leave and medical allowances for the entire seven-year period!
Company’s N12m Claim Sunk
The shock ruling by Hon. Justice (Prof) Elizabeth Oji of the National Industrial Court also threw out the publisher’s counter-claim that Ade owed them a whopping N12.2 million (a claimed shortfall in company funds).
Melrose Books & Publishing had tried to argue that Ade was responsible for a missing N18m, claiming he even admitted to a N12.2m “variance” in a handwritten note.
However, the Judge said the company’s allegations were not backed up by any proper internal investigation.
Crucially, the court found there was no proof the company ever co-operated with Ade to reconcile the accounts before they brutally suspended him without pay.
Ade had fiercely denied owing a penny, stating that a previous external audit found no debt. He told the court he only signed an “interim report” because he thought it was routine procedure—not an admission he was a thief.
He was suspended without pay just two days after being given a seven-day ultimatum to reconcile the books.
In her stinging judgment, Justice Oji slammed the company for leaving Ade’s employment status “in limbo,” stating that modern labour law “frowns at prolonged suspensions, indefinite suspension without pay.”
She ruled that because the publisher never formally sacked Ade and failed to prove any wrongdoing, he was legally still an employee for the entire period.
”The Claimant’s evidence has not established entitlement to this relief,” she declared, rejecting the publisher’s multi-million-pound debt claim.
It’s a massive win for Ade, who successfully counter-claimed that his indefinite, unpaid suspension was “harsh and unlawful.”
Melrose Books & Publishing now has to pay up all back salary, annual leave, and medical allowances in full before the month is out.
