Justice Stephen Musota, the head of the civil division of the High court, has ordered National Social Security Fund (NSSF) to pay its deputy managing director Geraldine Ssali all her legal costs after she quashed a board decision to send her on forced leave in 2016.
In his ruling on Thursday, Justice Musota annulled the NSSF board decision, describing it as illegal, irrational and procedurally improper since the board had no mandate to take such decision.
In 2016, NSSF wrote to Ssali asking her to take immediate leave yet she had just completed her maternity leave.
Ssali challenged the move, saying that in sending her on forced leave, the NSSF board violated the NSSF human resource manual because it failed to give her a fair hearing.
NSSF, in response, said leave was a temporary measure pending investigations but Justice Musota dismissed that argument, saying: “You don’t convict and then investigate.”
The judge also agreed with Ssali’s lawyers that indeed the board had no powers to send her on forced leave since powers of disciplining her, according to the NSSF Act, reside with the minister of finance; hence whatever the board decided was illegal and beyond their mandate.
This is not the first time Ssali is defeating her employers in court. In 2016, Justice Musota ordered the NSSF board chairman, Patrick Kaberenge, and managing director Richard Byarugaba to pay her Shs 200 million for being in contempt of court orders.
The duo had stopped Ssali from accessing her office.