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to his employer about school fees he was supposed to pay for his child.
Raymond Tewe was charged with fraud after presenting a school fees invoice of US$150 when the actual invoice was US$50.
He appeared before a disciplinary hearing, which found him guilty and dismissed him.
Tewe appealed to the appeals committee, which found that the hearing committee could not have come up with a verdict without calling the teacher.
He was reinstated while Barclays Bank was authorised to press fresh charges if they so wished.
The bank appealed to the national employment council (NEC) for the banking industry that dismissed the appeal on the basis that there was no loss to the bank.
The NEC also found that Tewe had no reason to tamper with the receipt.
Barclays Bank then noted an appeal to the Labour Court, which they won by default judgment.
The bank’s grounds of appeal were that the appeals board (AB) erred in finding that the teacher who issued the letter was supposed to testify.
It further argued that the AB erred in basing its decision on the reasoning that the bank did not suffer any loss, because potential prejudice suffices in law. The AB also failed to take consideration of Tewe’s letter admitting to the offence, which letter formed the basis of his conviction before the disciplinary committee. Tewe had filed an application before the Labour Court for rescission of the default judgment issued on
June 29, 2010, which was dismissed by Labour Court president Ms Loice Matanda-Moyo.
In his application on August 20, 2010 he submitted that he became aware of the default judgment on August 5, 2010 when he came back from Chiweshe communal area.
Ms Matanda-Moyo said that for such an application to succeed, firstly applicant must show that he was not in willful default.
Tewe argued that he was not in default, but accepted that the notice of set down was served by hand at his house in Tafara on June 4, 2010.
He explained that when the notice was served, his niece received it as he was in Chiweshe.
However, he did not explain why his niece would fail to transmit such important information to him.
Ms Matanda-Moyo said: “When applicant allegedly left for Chiweshe he was aware that such an appeal was pending before the court.
“He had not even filed a response to the appeal. His explanation that he believed labour cases took a long time to be heard is not believable.”
She pointed out that from the evidence, Tewe’s chances of success were slim and dismissed his application.
Online Reporter