Five civil servants have dragged Maracha district local government to court over the wrongful withholding of their salaries. They are Phillip Ociti, Jamila Abaru, Moses Ezuma, Sophie Alesi, and Rogers Atama.
Through their lawyer Buga and Company Advocates, the civil servants argue that the decision by the district to delete their names off the payroll was illegal and without due process.
In the lawsuit filed at Arua High Court, the aggrieved staff said they had not received salaries ranging between six months to over twelve months since June 2023.
“The CAO of the respondents decided to withhold salaries of the 1st, and,4th applicants from October 2023 to March 2024 while the 2nd and 5th Applicant have not been paid since November 2023 to March 2024 and the 3rd Applicant has not been paid since June 2023 to date”, reads the lawsuit in parts.
The staff have asked the court to compel the district to pay their wrongfully withheld salaries. They are also seeking general damages for the wrongful withholding of their salaries and want the district to pay the full costs arising from the suit.
“And an order of mandamus doth issue compelling the respondent to pay the applicants their salaries wrongfully withheld”, reads one of the judicial reliefs in the suit.
In an interview, Phillip Ociti, one of the affected civil servants told URN on Thursday that the revenant district authorities vehemently ignored their formal complaints and reminders about their unpaid salaries, something which prompted them to petition the court.
According to the court documents within June, October, and November 2023, the district illegally and without due process deleted the Applicants’ names from the payroll as a result the applicants were stopped.
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