The Transitional Authority has sought to be enjoined in a case where former employees of the defunct town council of Rumuruti have sued the county government of Laikipia over alleged unlawful dismissal.
Through its lawyer, TA told Nakuru industrial court Justice Stephen Radido that it will provide crucial information that will aid the court in making its decision in the case involving the workers who claimed to have been employed before the introduction of devolved governments.
The court gave TA, which sought to be enjoined as an interested party, two weeks to file its documents before it is enjoined in the year-old suit.
The court also extended interim orders barring the county government and the county public service board from terminating the employees until the matter is heard and determined.
“The injunctions that the workers continue working and earning have not been vacated,” said Radido during the ruling.
The employees had moved to court seeking compensation over wrongful dismissal and salary arrears they were entitled to before their termination on October 24, 2013 when they claim to have been fired orally.
Through their lawyer Kibet, they told the court that the town council erred in law when it failed to give them notice for impending termination of their services and that they were denied fair hearing before being laid off.
The employees claimed that the termination was in total disregard of the Employment Act as they were summarily dismissed from service through verbal communication.
The defendants in the case include: the Public Service Commission of Kenya, the county government of Laikipia and the county public service board, which was earlier enjoined in the case as an interested party.
The former workers now want the court to overturn their sacking and to compel their former employer to pay them salary arrears.
The county government has since denied sacking them, claiming that they were ghost workers inherited from the defunct local government.
The county government maintains that an audit by the Transitional Authority established that only 30 out of the 144 employees were legally employed and the 30 were maintained in the devolved government.
The court will issue further directions on December 11, when the parties in the case are expected to have furnished each other with important documents in the matter.