Labour disputes court stuck with 2750 cases; needs six years to dispose them of

The Industrial Court which settles unresolved disputes between employers, employees and trade unions needs at least six years to dispose of the current case, its chief judge, Justice Lillian Tumusiime Mugisha has said.

“We are only two judges sitting as a panel serving a population of about eight million Ugandans and the case load right now is 2750 cases which means on average each one of us has 1300 cases to dispose of which is humanly impossible. That would mean if the two judges are to do this work, we will dispose it of within six years,” Justice Tumusiime said.

She was speaking on Friday during a visit by the Judicial Service Commission in a bid to familiarize itself with the work of the labour disputes court and also get to know the challenges the court faces.

The court’s chief judge said whereas it is supposed to have five judges, they currently have only two whereas they also need at least two more registrars to add on the existing one to be able to effectively serving the population of working Ugandans which is about eight million.

Justice Tumusiime was also quick to point out the lack of enough space for the court to accommodate more staff and judges noting that this state of affairs has affected the case disposal rate.

“If the three other judges were appointed, we could save time and dispose the case of within one year and two months. However, even if they were to be recruited now, we don’t have space to accommodate the three other judges and two other registrars. We also don’t have space for a courtroom for them,” she said.

The court is currently housed in premises shared by the National Council for youth, women and children in Ntinda but it also lacks a library to facilitate research.

According to the Industrial Court’s chief judge, they have however lobbied NSSF to offer the court space at the NSSF court premises whose construction is soon kicking off.

She noted that appointment of judicial officers to the court is done by the Judicial Service Commission upon request by the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development and that the judicial officers have the same qualifications as those of other courts of judicature.

Speaking following the visit, Norah Matovu, the chairperson of the legal, public affairs and research committee of the Judicial Service Commission hailed the court for doing an exceptional job despite the challenges.

“We have observed that despite constraints, the Industrial Court has tried as much as possible to use the available resources to improve the systems of the court to do the work,” she said.

According to the leader of the team from the Judicial Service Commission having got a feel of the constraints at the court, they are going to work with stakeholders in the justice, law and order sector to help address some of the challenges the court faces.

“The human resource, Ministry of Gender must get the allocation. We have to speak to the rightful committees of parliament to ensure the budgets are available.”

The court

The Industrial Court was established under Section 7 of the Labour Disputes (Arbitration and Settlement) Act, 2006 to settle unresolved disputes between employers and trade unions over terms and conditions of employment.

According Justice Tumusiime, the purpose of the court is to expedite the process of resolving labour disputes and to this, employees don’t have to be with lawyers to be able to have their cases heard.

“The procedures we use are user friendly so that as many persons as possible can access justice. The court is presided over by a judge sitting with three other members who are referred to as panelists.”

The panelists comprise of a representative of the workers nominated by either NOTU or COFTU, a representative of the employers nominated by the Federation of Uganda Employers and an independent member appointed by the Ministry of Gender.