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The National Industrial Court sitting at Lagos on 13TH March 2016 delivered a judgment against Arik Airlines for failure to remit pension entitlements to its employees Retirement Savings Account in the case of Mr Ezeh Joseph Onyebuchi v. Arik Air Limited
The claimant is a former employee of the defendant. He was employed by the defendant on probation as a Cargo Manager and was subsequently confirmed.
While on employment, he opened a retirement savings account with Leadway Pensions in line with the provision of the Pensions Act. To the claimant, a deduction of N18,281.25 was made each month from his salary as pension fund contributions.
However, that the defendant failed to remit all the monthly contributions (totaling N1,608,750.00 for the 44 months he was in the employment of the defendant) from his salary to his Pension Funds Managers. The claimant went on that by a mutual agreement, he resigned from the defendant; but when he tried to access his pension fund, he met nothing in his account as the defendant had not been remitting anything into the said account.
By the statement of facts, the claimant is praying for the following reliefs inter-alia:
- “The sum of N1,608,750 (One Million, Six Hundred and Eight Thousand, seven and Fifty Naira) being the unremitted pension funds deducted from the Claimant’s salary between the 2nd of August 2010 to the 31st of March 2014”.
- The sum of N3, 900,000.00 (Three Million, Nine Hundred Thousand Naira only) as general damages.
The defendant did not file any defence process up to when the matter went to trial. At the trial, the claimant testified on his own behalf as CW. The opportunities given to the defendant to cross-examine CW or enter its defence or even to file its written address on the merit of the case were all not taken up by the defendant. Instead, all the defendant did was to file on 9th October 2017 a preliminary objection with a supporting affidavit and written address praying that this suit be dismissed for want of jurisdiction on the ground that section 417 of the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA) was not complied with.
Upon the filing of the preliminary objection of the defendant, the claimant on 31st October 2017 filed a counter-affidavit and a written address in opposition to the objection.
After reviewing the argument of the parties, the Court Presided by Hon. Justice B. B. Kanyip, PhD, had this to say:
I have carefully considered the processes filed and the submissions of counsel. I need to resolve the preliminary objection raised by the defendant. Here, I must point out that the submission by the defendant in paragraph 1.1 of its written address to the effect that Oluseye Opasanya SAN was appointed a Receiver Manager by an order of the Federal High Court per Idris J, and that consequent upon this appointment, the management of the defendant was taken over by the receiver manager, is unsubstantiated (the said order of the Federal High Court was not made available to this Court, nor is the suit number where the order was made even revealed).
Relief (4) is for special damages in the sum of N500,000.00; and relief (5) is for cost in the same sum. There is nothing in proof of these claims before the Court. They fail and are also dismissed.
In all, the claimant’s case succeeds in part and only in terms of relief (1) as already indicated. For the avoidance of doubt, therefore, the claimant’s claim succeeds in the terms of the following orders:
- Within 30 days of this judgment, the defendant shall remit to Leadway Pensure the sum of N1,572,187.50 being the total of pension contributions of the claimant deducted by the defendant but not remitted, which sum is to be credited into the claimant’s Retirement Savings Account Statement (No. PEN100662268718).
- Failing this, the said sum shall attract 10% interest per annum until fully paid.
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