On April 1, 2009, Rose Nanjala signed with Cavendish University what would later be revised into a Ugx 4 Million-a-month contract of employment as the Academics and Marketing Officer. A pregnancy four years later resulted in her sudden dismissal.
TIMELINE
Rose’s April 1 contract came with a gross monthly salary of Ugx 650,000/=. This was later adjusted to Ugx 2,140,000/= starting February 1, 2012. The same year on October 25, she was given the position of Sales and Marketing Manager with a monthly pay of Ugx 3,087,500=.
By January 2013, Rose’s pay had risen to Ugx 4,000,000/= per month, which Cavendish promptly paid her until March when the money stopped coming. Despite receiving no pay for the subsequent months, Rose diligently kept at her job.
Sometime later in 2013, Rose got pregnant, and then developed complications before giving birth. She gave birth to a premature baby and was then rendered bed-ridden for what at that time appeared to be an uncertain period of time. Subsequently, she was forced to get earlier-than-anticipated maternity leave on February 7, 2014 so as to explain/formalize her inability to report for work. Her leave was supposed to last for 90 days and she was expected back to work starting on May 7 that same year. This was further confirmed through an email by Cavendish’s Human Resource Manager Ms. Lydia Katusabe who informed Rose that she was expected back to work on May 5, albeit two days earlier.
On 27 March, Rose received a letter from Ms. Katusabe notifying her that she had been indefinitely suspended. The contents of the suspension letter were not only vague but also confusing for Rose. “In one line it read like a suspension letter. In the next line it read like a charge sheet.” Rose states.
“Your work relations have been deteriorating to an extent of failing to officially handover to fellow employees when you knew you would go for leave. You are charged with insubordination…which has affected company operations adversely. You have presented to have a person dismissed for your personal interests [sic]. You are therefore charged with false allegations against fellow members…,” read the letter.
When Campus Bee asked Rose to elaborate on some of the allegations against her in the letter, she explained thus: “The office I was using had 3 copies of keys. I had one copy, the DVC Prof. Chirwa Shaba had another copy, and then the Ms. Katusabe also had a copy. I told them to use the copies they had because I couldn’t leave hospital. They broke into the office and found everything as I had left it before I was hospitalized. They say I tried to get someone terminated but I wasn’t the HR. How could I get anyone terminated?”
Anyway, that same day after receiving the letter, Rose went straight to her lawyers at Ambrose Tebyasa & Co. Advocates. The following day, Rose’s lawyers delivered to Cavendish a hard-hitting correspondence demanding that the university immediately lift Rose’s purported suspension.
“You are well aware that our client’s maternity leave came abruptly due to her health condition when she was operated to save her life and her unborn baby. Your purported suspension of our client is a disguised dismissal since no disciplinary or other legal proceedings have ever been commenced against her,” the April 29 letter from Rose’s lawyers’ read in part. The lawyers demanded that Cavendish immediately rescinds Rose’s suspension or face the law at their own cost and embarrassment.
Incensed by Rose’s involvement of lawyers, Cavendish immediately terminated her employment. Rose received information of this termination on her sick-bed, through another letter signed by Ms. Katusabe and dated April 29. The letter vaguely stated that “this is a decision management has taken after carrying out investigations … and found you guilty with overwhelming evidence. The university would have preferred criminal charges against you but felt termination will suffice. Kindly return any property that belongs to the university.”
“They [Cavendish] usually acted on impulse to make decisions so when Ambrose [the lawyer] wrote to them demanding they lift the suspension, they reacted by terminating me,” Ms. Nanjala reacts.
After her dismissal, Rose commenced a battle against Cavendish to get compensation regarding her unfair and arbitrary dismissal by the university. Fighting alongside her for justice was her husband Mr. Mwesigwa Simon, also a staff [lecturer] of Cavendish’s.
On June 17, 2014, Mr. Mwesigwa received a letter terminating “with immediate effect” his employment as a full time staff of Cavendish’s. “After investigations, we found you guilty of falsehood and unethical business conduct…and professional concerns over your failure to accomplish tasks assigned to you in July 2013. As a result, the university is uncomfortable to continue with you as its employee,” the termination letter stated.
However, Rose discounts Cavendish’s justification for her husband’s sacking. “My husband was helping me pursue justice. That is why the-then Deputy Vice Chancellor decided to terminate him, alleging that my husband was guilty of grave misconduct and non-performance in the research department. But my husband had been transferred from that department around two years earlier!”
But after sacking Rose’s husband, Cavendish was not done yet. “They [Cavendish] opened up a case against me at Makindye Chief Magistrates Court, Criminal Cause No. 874 of 2014. They alleged that I had stolen their laptop. But I had left that laptop safely locked away in my office together with other university property before being admitted to hospital. They admitted breaking into that office themselves while I was still away!” On December 19, 2014, His Worship Watyekere G. W. of the Makindye Court dismissed this case and discontinued the criminal prosecution against Rose.
Was Cavendish being vindictive, malicious and oppressive when it fired Rose and her husband, then later opened up criminal proceedings against her, or these were just normal dismissals, aimed at saving the university from financial ruin due to the unsatisfactory performance of the Mwesigwas’?
Cavendish University was contacted through its official email address for a comment on this matter but its PR handlers expressed ignorance about Rose’s case.
*Campus Bee has seen copies of all the documents supporting the facts reported in this story.
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