Gov’t to pay former workers of Uganda Posts and Telecommunications

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Cabinet has approved a proposal by the Ministry of ICT and National Guidance to pay pension to former employees of the now-defunct Uganda Posts and Telecommunication Corporation.

Speaking on Wednesday at the Uganda Media Centre in Kampala, Judith Nabakooba, the Minister in charge of ICT and National Guidance said Cabinet directed the Auditor General to carry out evaluations to see who is eligible.

Nabakooba called on all the former employees or their survivors to go to her ministry with evidence to show that they have ever worked with UPTC so that their payments can be processed. The minister however couldn’t explicitly say how many people or how much money the government is going to spend on payment.

In 1997, the government merged the UPTC into several entities that include; Posta Uganda, Uganda Telecommunications Limited, Post Bank and Uganda Communication Commission.

Most of the employees who used to work with UPTC then were absorbed by the successor companies. However, although they had an internal pension scheme known as the Uganda Communication employees contributory pension scheme, they were never paid their pension by the successor companies claiming that they did not have money.

In 2003, the former employees dragged the successor companies to court demanding that they be paid.

The High Court ruled in their favour but the companies except UCC and Post Bank appealed the ruling. In 2018, the Court of Appeal ruled in the employees’ favour forcing Posta Uganda and Uganda Telecommunication to seek assistance from the government.

“The majority of the employees had joined Posta and UTL but the amount payable estimated to be 77 Billion Shillings wasn’t affordable,” Nabakooba said.

*****

URN