The fascinating Allan Nsubuga Magunda versus KCCA FC series has been exciting both as a trailer and the actual final product and could prove to be more intriguing especially now that the climax episode is seemingly on the horizon.
The latest is that the former KCCA FC club statistician has filed a complaint to the Labour office through his legal team, Springs Advocates, claiming to have suffered inconvenience, mental anguish and embarrassment during this process and therefore seeks compensation for the damages caused by the club.
If this was a movie, it would assume a position as a direct opposite to an ideal teaser to a high octane Micheal Bay blockbuster; very stylish and jaw-dropping in parts, but ultimately lacking in substance and unable to create a lasting impression.
It was Tuesday June 29th of this very year that a letter indicating a notice for contract expiry to put to an end Allan’s services in the capacity of club statistician was sent to his email. The letter had signatures from both the Manager Administration-and-Operations and CEO at the Lugogo giants.
The letter further highlighted that KCCA were unwilling to renew his employment contract as a compromise they had been forced to make in a bid to fairly contend with and navigate the diverse effects brought about by the continuous spread of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The downsize of some members of the technical team was always going to come in handy according to Anisha Muhoozi Shahir and Moses Kaddu but indicated that Allan’s requisite salary and transport allowance for the month of June had been paid to his respective account on June 24th at 13:09 GMT East African time.
The letter further gave liberty to Allan to continue utilizing his IAA Medical Care card until it’s expiry date (September 14th 2021) but also asked him to retain any official club ware that had been granted to him during his stay with the Lugogo based side.
At reception of the letter, Allan took his disappointment to the media and immediately stated that the club had defaulted in terms meeting the contractual obligations regarding his monthly transport stipend.
This opened a can of worms and a long debate on social media especially for the fact that the club in question boasts of a good reputation in terms of both player and staff remuneration.
Through his lawyers, Allan demanded for a settlement of Ugx.10,800,000 and legal fees of two million shillings that he claims to have incurred so far. The reported amount is for his transport allowance that is said to have accumulated in the entire three years of his contract.
KCCA were granted an ultimatum of five days from the time of receipt of the notice, upto July 5th to provide a response or await legal proceedings. They aptly beat this deadline and retaliated with a letter to the former through the Director Legal Affairs at Authority, Caleb Mugisha.
In the response, Mugisha indicates that Nsubuga’s employment at the club was on a part-time basis and the agreements between the two parties regarding remuneration were so that a monthly salary of Ugx.500,000 and an entitlement to a daily transport refund of Ugx.10,000 was paid to his account.
The transport allowance was to paid as a consolidated sum at the end of every month but Mugisha insists that as per the KCCA FC policy, all staff are required to sign in a duly provided staff attendance book as a compliance and control measure when they happen to report for duty at the premises at the MTN Omondi stadium.
Allan only physically reported to work twice during the duration of his contract according to the club, since the nurture of his work never demanded that he reports to work on a daily basis.
Mugisha therefore maintains that Nsubuga was paid facilitation for the said days thereby making his demands baseless. It was this retaliation with fire from KCCA provoked Allan and his legal team to file a complaint at the Labour office.
The statistician has since denied to have either seen or signed in the said attendance book or anything else for that matter apart from his contract. He assures that once this gets to court, they will activate other compensations and damages like the bonus policy.
If anything from the club is to be believed, this might just be a case of Allan Nsubuga sour-graping and trying to extract money from KCCA. We shouldn’t however be oblivious to the fact that his claims hold water as well.
This is setting up nicely for an interesting and mouthwatering climax.
