Former Telikom staff win K12 million ruling

By CLIFFORD FAIPARIK
THE Supreme Court has ruled in favour of 473 former Telikom employees after the company had deprived them of K12 million from their final payout.
The K12 million were deducted as tax even though Telikom was instructed by the National Executive Council not to do so.
The Waigani Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice Sir Salamo Injia handed down the decision in Port Moresby on Friday to uphold an earlier decision by the National Court.
Telikom management had appealed to the Supreme Court to review the National Court’s decision after the court on March 6, 2015, ruled that Telikom had acted in bad faith in not complying with an NEC’s decision.
The former Telikom employees were made redundant in 2011 by a decision of the National Executive Council.
But in that decision, the council also approved that they be exempted from tax obligations.
The aggrieved former employees had taken Telikom management to court.
One of the aggrieved former Telikom staff, Nick Paliau, said that they were happy that the Supreme Court had upheld the National Court decision.
Lawyer Tau Kamuta said that he would write to Telikom management and advice them to comply with the Supreme Court’s decision and pay the former staff their outstanding payments, averaging about K25,500 each.