On Wednesday, the Federal Government informed the National Industrial Court of its decision to formally react to the request for arbitration made by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) by May 11.
The African Students’ Union of Uganda (ASUU) has initiated legal action against the Minister of Labour and Employment as well as the Registrar of Trade Unions (RTU).
The lawsuit challenges the purported threat made by the Federal Government to revoke ASUU’s certificate of registration due to the organization’s failure to provide annual financial returns and audited accounts for almost ten years.
During the sitting on Tuesday, the attorney for ASUU, Mr. Marshal Abubakar, holding the brief of Mr. Femi Falana SAN, informed the court that he had filed a motion for the matter to be referred to the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Centre of the court. Mr. Marshal Abubakar was holding the brief of Mr. Femi Falana SAN.
In response, Mr. J.U.K Igwe, SAN stated that he had not been served any application to that effect. He added that this was the case.
In addition to the application, he stated that he would need to confer with his clients in order to determine what decision they would make regarding the referral to ADR.
Because of this, the judge, Justice Benedict Kanyip, decided to postpone the proceeding until Wednesday.
However, when the issue was brought up in court on Wednesday, Igwe told the judge that he had waited all day Tuesday, but he did not receive ASUU’s application until just a little while before the proceeding on Wednesday.
As a result, he requested a postponement so that he could have more time to respond formally to the application submitted by ASUU asking for mediation at the ADR.
The attorney continued by saying that he needed to also file other applications after seeing ASUU’s because agreeing to go to the ADR would involve delving into the specifics of the law in a more technical manner.
Igwe stated that he was going to consult with his clients and would not be formally reacting to ASUU’s application at this time, so Justice Kanyip stated that the matter would be postponed until Wednesday.
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The judge also stated that he had the authority to refer the parties to alternative dispute resolution (ADR) on his own, as the Centre does not have the authority to compel anyone to agree or accept issues that have been mediated upon.
Because Abubakar did not raise any objections to Igwe’s request for a postponement so that she could respond to their demand, the judge ruled as follows:
“Yesterday, the attorneys for the defendants asked for a delay in the proceedings so that they could confer with their respective clients.
” The purpose of requesting the adjournment was not to formally respond to the motion for mediation; rather, it was to consult.
” Although I am taken aback by this latest turn of events, I will not prevent you from continuing.
The judge made the decision to postpone the case until May 11 in Abuja in order to hear the motion for arbitration. “In the circumstances,” the judge said.
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