Ugandan teacher awarded 26.6 million shillings
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on The Observer
A Ugandan court awarded Jean Joan Kashanku, a former teacher at Kabojja Junior School, 26.6 million shillings after her retirement on medical grounds. The amount includes 15.2 million shillings in severance pay and 11.4 million in damages, according to the judgment delivered in Kampala.
Kampala’s Industrial Court on Friday 13 November ordered Kabojja Junior School Limited to pay its former teacher Jean Joan Kashanku 26.6 million shillings after ruling that she had been forced to retire because of medical incapacity. The amount includes 15.2 million shillings in severance pay for 16 years of service and 11.4 million shillings in damages, equivalent to 12 months of her basic salary of 950,000 shillings, according to The Observer.
Justice Anthony Wabwire Musana, sitting with four assessors, found that Kashanku’s deteriorating health prevented her from continuing to work as a teacher. The court considered her age, length of service, medical condition and limited prospects of finding employment. It declined to award exemplary damages and ordered each party to bear its own legal costs.
Jean Joan Kashanku joined Kabojja Junior School as a subject teacher on 10 February 2004, before becoming a class teacher in June of the same year. She announced her immediate retirement on medical grounds on 25 June 2020, citing chronic back pain and numbness in her hands. She said her problems, which began in 2018, had worsened with the physical demands of her work, including prolonged standing, bending, writing on the board and marking examinations, according to The Observer.
