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Senior Reporter
A manager with CMED (Private) Limited who was fired in 2009 will go back to work after the Labour Court cleared him of any wrongdoing. Mr Calisto Maniki, an area manager with CMED, was dismissed on two counts of absenting himself from work for five consecutive days each in 2006 and 2007.

He was fired for attending block release lectures at Chinhoyi University of Technology where he was a Master of Science in Strategic Management student.

The company set up a tribunal to try Mr Maniki in April 2009 but he did not attend the hearing and was convicted and discharged in absentia.
Through his lawyers Matsikidze and Mucheche, Mr Maniki appealed to a labour officer and the matter was referred for arbitration.

His lawyers argued that labour proceedings must be instituted within two years of alleged breaches.
An arbitrator agreed with Mr Maniki’s lawyers and ordered his reinstatement.

The arbitrator ruled that CMED had committed an unfair labour practice and that Mr Maniki had not absented himself from duty without authority.
CMED then appealed to the Labour Court, arguing that the arbitrator had failed to properly and fairly handle the case.

However, Labour Court judge Justice Philder Muzofa recently dismissed the appeal for lack of merit.
She noted that the proceedings should not have been instituted at all considering that the two-year period had already lapsed.

“If this matter was subsequently referred to a labour officer between March 31, 2009 and April 6, 2009, then the labour officer entertained the matter outside the two-year period as provided in the Act.

“The last date the respondent failed to report for duty was March 10 2007 therefore by the beginning of April 2009 the matter had been prescribed.

“The proceedings before the labour officer and the subsequent hearing by the arbitrator are a nullity,” she ruled.
The judge also upheld the finding by the arbitrator that the company had committed an unfair labour practice.