UAP insurance firm faces legal challenge over staff dismissals

JUBA – The UAP administration is facing a legal suit initiated by terminated national staff who were dismissed after calling for a pay rise. Despite an order from the Ministry of Labor calling for their reinstatement, UAP has failed to comply.

The National Staff Association (UNSA) has initiated legal proceedings against the insurance firm. In a summon notice seen by Sudans Post, the Juba High Court directed the UAP management to appear before the court hearing slated for September 18, at 9:00 AM.

“Defendant UAP Insurance South Sudan Ltd to the office of the Bailiff clerk you are delegated to notify the defendant to appear before me on date 18 September, 20254 time 9:00 Am …Labor case,” said Judge Francis Amum in the summon.

In 2023, UAP and its national employees had been at loggerheads over unfair treatment and differing wages for nationals compared to their foreign expatriate colleagues. This led to about 70 national staff staging a sit-in strike, bringing the UAP business to a standstill.

Luka Nyarsuk Nason, Chairman of the Labor Advisory Council, in a letter dated September 29, 2023, asked the UAP management to also put on hold all administrative measures taken against staff.

In October, the Ministry of Labor delivered a long-awaited verdict against the dispute between the UAP insurance management and national staff over unfair treatment and salary structure.

Mary Hillary Wani, the undersecretary in the Ministry of Labor, directed the UAP firm to instantly reinstate 10 national employees who were axed.

“The terminated members of the staff association, both executive and members, are to be reinstated without fail,” Ms. Wani noted.

The Labor Ministry instructed UAP management to review the salary structure and to give the human resources office to a South Sudanese national.

“The national human resource official is to be trained and given full responsibility for human resource work,” Ms. Wani noted.

According to the labor docket, positions for UAP staff who are physically working in Kenya will be advertised and nationalized.

However, this outlet establishes that none of the Ministry of Labor’s verdict had been implemented by the UAP company by the press time.