The Employment and Labour Relations Court has ruled it is illegal to have employees work overtime without monetary compensation.
Judge Linnet Ndolo also ruled that it is unlawful to punish an employee who refuses to work for extra unlawful hours.
This ruling came after a former employee at money printing firm, De La Rue filed a case in court after he was sacked for failing to work on the weekend without pay.
Mr Daniel Njuguna, who was a Print Supervisor at De la rue, was dismissed in December 2013 after he failed to report to work due to discontinuation of his overtime pay for work done beyond normal hours.
According to the firm, Njuguna did not show up for work after discovering he would earn nothing.
The firm argued that employees had been notified there would be no overtime pay and that work done outside the normal working hours would be compensated by time off.
A dismissal letter by De La Rue's Head of Operations David Hepple read "Njuguna willfully neglected to perform his work, leading to summary dismissal."
"The logical conclusion is that since the instruction to work overtime without monetary compensation was itself unlawful, no charge based on it could stand. There was, therefore, no reason for the termination of the claimant's employment and the ensuing disciplinary process had no leg to stand on," Justice Ndolo stated.
The Judge awarded Njuguna Sh2.36 Million for the unfair termination.
