CARMEL RICKARD: When top managers experience the pain of ordinary workers
A senior banking official was so upset by a change in his company’s chain of command that he resigned and asked a court to award him damages
Sometimes even top managers get to experience the pain and insecurity that ordinary workers whose jobs are at risk know only too well. Take the case of Musonda Mutale, Zambia’s country head of corporate banking at African Banking Corp. After a shake-up in the bank he was so unhappy with his new position that he went to court, claiming he was unlawfully demoted and constructively dismissed following unilateral changes to his conditions of service. What made him most unhappy was that under the new arrangements he no longer reported directly to the MD and group head in Johannesburg, as in the past. That adjustment to his line of reporting distressed him so much that he took the considerable financial and professional risk of leaving his job and then initiating a court challenge. The bank’s 2015 revamp was intended to ensure that its structures were similar to those of large international banks and that it could handle certain planned mergers. One result of this restructuring was that a...
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