Former G4S Manager Mark Ngugi Mwaura has been awarded Ksh3.2 million by Justice James Rika after he was fired for his romantic relationship with a junior employee.
Mark Ngugi, the Claimant, filed a petition in March 2021. He told the court that he started humbly at the company as a management trainee in 2000.
He rose through the ranks, eventually landing the position of Regional Operations Manager in Nairobi in 2018.
Moreover, he held this position until December 2020, when he stated the company unfairly and unlawfully terminated his contract. At the time, he was earning a gross monthly salary of Ksh270,400.
According to Court papers, on November 13, 2020, Mark received a notice from the company’s Human Resource Director asking him to show cause why disciplinary action shouldn’t be taken against him.
Further, he was accused of influencing the irregular transfer of a junior security guard, making sexual advances toward her, and borrowing and lending her money.
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The former Manager Narrates Reason for the Unfair Dismissal
In response, Mark wrote back to HR denying the allegations.
He knew that the female employee had returned from maternity leave and been transferred to a receptionist position at an Upper Hill office.
But as far as he was concerned, the transfer had been managed by her immediate supervisor, not him.
However, he was forced by the company’s Human Resource Director to undergo DNA testing, using his own resources, to establish if he had fathered the daughter of a junior employee.
“It was alleged that he had an unholy relationship with Mukami, resulting in the birth of the girl. The DNA test was done at the Bioinformatics Institute of Kenya. It turned out negative, but the respondent still terminated his contract on allegations of sexual harassment,” the ruling read in part.
On the other hand, the female employee was fired from G4S for giving false information that the manager had sired her daughter.
According to Mark, the company failed to follow its own disciplinary policy, the Employment Act, and the Constitution as there was no valid reason shown to justify his termination.
“He states that the procedure was fundamentally flawed. The Disciplinary Committee had an interest in the outcome. The Panel created to hear his Appeal was biased against the Claimant.”
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Company Responds Before Court
At the same time, G4S argued that the termination was fair and based on valid reason.
Further, the company noted that Mark was engaged in sexual harassment contrary to the Respondent’s Africa Region Employee Handbook, by coercing an employee to surrender to sexual advances.
It also revealed that on 4th September 2020, the security guard reported to the Human Resource Director that she had been in a sexual relationship with the claimant in 2016 and 2017.
As a result of the relationship with the former manager, she birthed a baby girl, and the claimant, who was her boss, refused to offer her child support.
“She alleged further that the claimant borrowed from her Ksh200,000 as a result of their sexual relationship, which he then refused to pay her back. The Human Resource Director constituted an Investigation Committee, and the claimant admitted he had a sexual relationship with the employee from 2016 to 2017.”
However, the charge concerning borrowing of money from a junior staff was dropped, after the claimant defended himself successfully.
Court Decision
The court ruled that the company did not draw the line, and fully appreciated the difference, between a sexual relationship, and sexual harassment.
“Not every sexual relationship at the workplace, results in sexual harassment.” said the court.
“Romantic relationships at the workplace must be left to run their own natural course. It is a harebrained law or policy, that would seek to outlaw the affairs of the heart.
“It is declared that termination of the Claimant’s contract of employment by the respondent was unfair for lack of valid reason.”
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