Court rejects man’s claims of human rights breach

WAIGANI National Court’s Justice David Cannings rejected a human rights claim by former PNG Bible Society finance and administration manager Edward Molip Nio over his termination and ordered a separate trial on the assessment of sums on damages.
Nio was employed for two years and nine months of a five-year contract when he was terminated.
The reasons for the termination were that the terms and conditions of his employment were excessive because he proposed them himself and had them endorsed by a person who lacked authority to do so; and, that an audit of the organisation’s financial affairs revealed fraudulent dealings under his management and was referred to the fraud office.
Nio was given one month to vacate the organisation’s property in which he was residing at.
Five weeks after receiving the termination notice, Nio commenced proceedings in the National Court against the organisation, its chairman (Rev Roger Joseph) and its executive secretary (Verenagi Ravu), claiming damages for breach of human rights for unlawful termination of employment and for breach of contract.
Nio claimed that he was denied the full protection of the law and was treated harshly and oppressively for the purposes of s37(1) and 41(1) of the Constitution on the basis of unsubstantiated allegations of fraud.
He claimed that he wasn’t provided any opportunity to respond to the allegations and there was no actual charges against him.
Justice Cannings, however, rejected this argument.
“The plaintiff (Nio) was not entitled to a right to be heard, and whether the allegations were substantiated or not, and whether or not he has faced criminal charges, his employer had the right to terminate the contract for any reason,” the judge said.