Full pay for sacked workers

THE Lae District Court has found the termination of five Evangelical Lutheran Church workers as unlawful.
Magistrate Tera Dawai, who ruled on the case between five church staff and church executives, told church secretary Bernard Kaisom (first respondent) and the church (second respondent) that they had unlawfully terminated the plaintiffs.
The court also ordered the respondents to pay the plaintiffs unpaid wages back-dating to pay period ending last Feb 19, their entitlements and monies in lieu of notice.
The parties are to meet their own costs.
The plaintiffs were two clergymen who had each served the church for 44 years and three lay administration officers (all wanted to be anonymous).
From the writ, Jephthah Girinde said the five were forced to resign just two working days after the church’s 32nd synod hosted by Boana district over allegations of campaigning against the re-elected church executives.
They were informed through a letter by Kaisom of a “church executive decision” to resign within 48 hours.
A “church executive decision” was made by the head bishop, assistant bishop and secretary.
The court sighted from submissions by parties that there was no evidence of insubordination by the five respondents and they were not given the opportunity to be heard within the church judicial process despite their written appeals to the church’s appeals committee.
The court did not decide on re-instatement of the plaintiffs but left it to the “conscience of the respondents”.
Girinde said outside the court that “it is regrettable we dragged the name of the church into court”.
“As we were not able to avoid doing so since we were not given the ‘opportunity to be heard’ under the church’s internal process.”