Reprimands The Company For Unfair Labour Practice
By Garmah Never Lomo, garmahlomo@gmail.com
TEMPLE OF JUSTICE, Monrovia –The Activa Insurance Company in Liberia has been entrapped in a legal dispute with its employees and has been ordered to pay one of its former employees US$4,000.00 in unpaid service benefit.
The payment was ordered by the Judge of the Labor, Joseph Kollie who said Activa International Insurance Company must pay the amount as he handed down his ruling in the case earlier this week (Tuesday, June 3, 2025).
Judge Kollie confirmed the ruling of the Hearing Officer at the Division of Labor Standards with modification against the Management of Activa International Insurance Company in an Action of Wrongful Dismissal case.
In his ruling, the Judge held the insurance company liable for unfair labor practice and ordered the Management to pay the sum of US$436,476.48, that is
US$430,476.48 as end of service benefit and US $6,000 for the three months leave plus an air ticket to take the Saye Galezeh back to the United State.
After the ruling, the Judge ordered the clerk of court to prepare the necessary Bill of Costs to be placed in the hands of the sheriff to be served on all lawyers concerned for taxation.
Judge Kollie’s was based on four issues.
Activa in its petition for Judicial Review after the Hearing Officer ruling to the Labor Court alleged that the Hearing Officer committed multiple reversible errors by awarding the amount of US$466,488 to Saye Galezeh back to the United State as end of service benefits instead of US$249,392.10 which is the actuarial matrix.
According to the Insurance Company, the Hearing Officer awarded the Galezeh US$15,000 for re-settlement and migration back to the USA, which it considered as a reversible error because the employment contract does not provide for resettlement back to the USA, therefore, Galezeh was not entitled to such payment.
The Insurance Company argued that the Hearing Officer also committed a reversible error by awarding the Galezeh US$24,000 for accrued annual leave not considering that he had worked for only three months out of the twelve months but was awarded compensation for twelve months or the entire year instead of prorating the payment.
The company requested the court to reverse and vacate the entire ruling of the Hearing Officer from the Ministry of Labor.
But Saye Galezeh in response filed a15 counts return claiming that the Hearing Officer committed no reversible error and therefore, his final ruling should be enforced.
Again, Activa in its petition challenged the jurisdiction of the court and Ministry of Labor on grounds that where the rights and obligations of the parties are governed by a private contract, the Ministry of Labor lacks jurisdiction to adjudicate such disputes, unless they involve clear issues of statutory labor rights violations.
The insurance company maintained that the Ministry lacks jurisdiction to hear disputes arising out of employment contract and that Section 1.5a of the Decent Work Acts conferred jurisdiction on the Ministry of Labor to hear and determine disputes in all employment contract, involving work that is perform in the jurisdiction of Liberia irrespective of Nationality of the parties.
The company further argued that Liberian jurisprudence has firmly established that where the rights and obligation of parties are governed by a private contract, the Labor Ministry lacks jurisdiction to adjudicate such disputes, unless they involve clear issues of statutory labor rights violation.
However, the court disagreed with Activa because the jurisdiction of the National Labor Court extends to matters affecting relationship between employer-employee in which administrative remedy has been exhausted and verified petition is duly filed by a party to a dispute for judicial review.
Addressing this issue, Judge Kollie disagreed with Activa position that the Civil Law Court is the proper venue to hear the matter.