By William Madouk
Defense attorney Gabriel Anyar, representing UAP Insurance Company, failed to appear at the Juba High Court for a labor dispute involving terminated national staff.
As a result, the court ordered a five-day adjournment to allow the defense lawyer time to present his case against the plaintiff’s petition, which is now scheduled for December 2.
Marko Reech, the lawyer for the terminated UAP staff, spoke to journalists, stating that the tribunal session was intended for the submission of the defense’s amended statement in response to the plaintiff’s amended account in the labor case.
“The session is fixed today for the reply from the defense [team] but unfortunately the defense turns it down, with an excuse that the defense lawyer is not around and they requested the session to be put on 2nd of December,” Reech stated.
“Because we want to give justice a space, we have actually put the coming session for the date they requested,” he added.
However, Advocate Anyar also snubbed the court almost three weeks ago, citing that he was ill and now this is his second nonappearance.
Reacting to frequent absences of defense advocate from court sessions, Mr. Reech stated that he had no idea, adding that his counterpart came on November 15 ready, but just that judge wasn’t around.
“They came on Nov 15 but we found that the judge had travelled and after the judge returned, we fixed another date and, we also informed them for today’s court session,” he said.
“But for reason known to them [defense team], they use an excuse for them not to come today,” he added.
Two weeks ago, the plaintiff’s lawyer handed Judge Francis Amum amended petition – bearing employment details for terminated staff after the judge ordered attorneys to avail missing data in the documents.
Nonetheless, the defense lawyer is yet to submit an amended statement before the court.
Later, the Judge would evaluate the two statements – and he would then frame charges.
About a month ago, Juba High Court rejected the UAP Insurance Company’s preliminary objection to abort the case, citing a lack of substantial evidence in the firm’s legal objection and comment.
Presiding Judge Francis Amum trashed the legal objection and affirmed the continuity of the court proceedings.
He further urged both advocates to present their evidence before framing the charges.
In October last year, UAP and its national employees were in dispute over unequal treatment and differing wages for nationals compared to their foreign expatriate counterparts.
That forced about 70 national staff to stage a sit-in strike, bringing the UAP business to a standstill.
UAP Insurance firm dismissed at least ten national staff for calling for improved pay. This was contrary to the Ministry of Labor’s order calling for the reinstatement of 10 fired staff.
This, however, forced the UAP National Staff Association (UNSA) to initiate a legal case against the insurance firm.