Uganda Commercal Bank Ltd v Nabudere and Another (Civil Appeal 5 of 2003)

Observed later treatment

Citator coverage is limited to judgments in the Wakilii corpus and source-matched treatment records. Absence of a signal is not an assertion that the case remains good law.

Holding

The Supreme Court dismissed the bank's appeal, affirming concurrent findings of the High Court and Court of Appeal. A long-serving employee who retired under the bank's voluntary Restructuring Programme was entitled, on top of his retirement package, to his basic salary and the allowances that would have been paid for leave he was required to take but was denied owing to pressure of work. Those entitlements had accrued before retirement, accumulated like his untaken leave, and could not be defeated by the new Restructuring Programme. Paying them did not constitute double payment because the employee had worked for and earned the emoluments; to deny them would unfairly enrich the bank.

Outcome

Appeal dismissed; the lower courts' award of accumulated leave salary and allowances to the deceased's estate stands.

Facts

The deceased was employed by the appellant bank from 19 December 1961 to 30 September 1993, over 30 years, rising to Chief Personnel Manager. In April 1993 the bank issued Circular No. 3 introducing a Restructuring Programme under which staff could retire voluntarily. The deceased applied and was accepted. As an employee of more than ten years he received 12 months' salary plus 12 months' allowances, 3 months' salary plus allowances in lieu of notice, accumulated leave in cash, and part of his long service award. He then sued, claiming he was additionally entitled to basic salary and allowances (housing, cost of living, medical, servants, travelling, lunch and leave allowances) for a 208-day period of accumulated leave he had been unable to take because of work pressure. Evidence from the bank's own Senior Human Resources Manager confirmed that an employee on leave continued to receive salary and allowances, and that staff who did not exhaust their leave were entitled to a proportionate sum. The High Court awarded the allowances and salary (except medical allowance); the Court of Appeal upheld the award by majority.

Issues

1. Whether, on retirement under the appellant's voluntary Restructuring Programme, the deceased employee was entitled to his basic salary and allowances for the period of accumulated leave he never took, in addition to the accumulated leave paid in cash.
2. Whether paying the deceased his salary and allowances for the untaken leave period amounted to impermissible double payment.

Orders

• Appeal dismissed.
• Costs of the appeal in the Supreme Court and the courts below awarded to the respondents.

Rules and key headnotes

Cases citing this judgment (1)

How later Ugandan judgments in the Wakilii corpus have cited this case. Treatment labels come from Sequitur — Uganda’s citator — each backed by a verbatim span from the citing judgment, and are not an assertion that this case is, or is not, good law.

• Attorney General & Anor v Afric Cooperative Society Ltd [2014] UGSC 6

The original judgment as reported. Read the original PDF before relying on any passage.