IN THE
INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS COURT OF MALAWI

PRINCIPAL
REGISTRY

MATTER
NO. IRC 311 OF 2002

BETWEEN

AMONI………………..……………………………………
……………...APPLICANT

-and-

MALAWI HOUSING
CORPORATION...……………..……………..RESPONDENT

CORAM: R. Zibelu
Banda, Chairperson

Kazembe; of
Counsel for the Respondent

Applicant; present

Gowa; Official
Interpreter

JUDGMENT

Dismissal- Justification-Reason-Fixed
contract-Contract expiring at end of project-Severance
allowance-Whether payable in fixed
contracts.

Upon
hearing the applicant and upon hearing the respondent; the court
finds that the applicant was employed on fixed contracts to
perform
specific tasks. The applicant’s last contract was terminated at the
end of a specific project. The applicant was engaged
in several fixed
contracts all terminating at the end of the set project. These
contracts did not amount to continous employment
because the
applicant was never employed for unspecified period of time nor could
he be said to have been laid off at the end of
each contract. The
contracts terminated at the end of each project and there was no
continous employment in the manner envisaged
by section 41(3)(d) of
the Employment Act.

This case
is therefore dismissed in its entirety as the applicant was not
employed for unspecified period of time in which case
his termination
was valid in accordance with the termination of fixed contracts. The
applicant is not entitled to severance allowance
according to section
35(4)(b) of the Employment Act.

Any party
aggrieved by this decision has the right of appeal to the High Court
within 30 days of this decision. Appeal lies only
on matters of law
and jurisdiction and not facts: Section 65 (2) of the Labour
Relations Act.

Pronounced
this 4^th day of July 2006 at BLANTYRE.

Rachel
Zibelu Banda.

CHAIRPERSON.