JUDICIARY Latest Features

The Chief Justice, Hon. Justice Bart\r\nKatureebe while speaking at the first\r\nopen day of the Industrial Court (IC) in Kampala Friday 22 April, 2015 urged\r\nthe Government to empower the Industrial Court by enabling it to set up\r\nsub-registries in major towns of the country as collecting centers for cases. The\r\nIC is responsible for the dissemination of labor justice.

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"If the court is to promote Justice for\r\nall, then Government must empower it to have more than one panel to reach out\r\nto the employers and workers who need the court services,” Hon. Justice\r\nKatureebe said.

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Hon. Justice Katureebe expressed\r\nconcern about the limited reach of the court, saying currently the IC located\r\nonly in Kampala yet it is expected to serve the whole country. He went on\r\nsuggest that alternatively, the court should consider taking advantage of\r\ntechnology to hear cases through audio-visual link technology since virtual\r\ncourts are cheap, affordable, and convenient and have the potential of saving\r\nboth the court and litigants the high costs of administering Justice.

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He also emphasized the need to resolve\r\ndisputes through Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) as it is the future of\r\nJustice because "statistics and experience show that resolving disputes through\r\nADR is affordable, convenient and produces excellent Justice outcomes for the\r\nparties.”

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"I, therefore urge the Government to\r\njoin hands with the judicial institutions to develop and popularize ADR among\r\nthe public and lawyers, who have reservations about it.  The Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs,\r\nthe Judicial Service Commission and other Justice Law and Order Sector (JLOS)\r\ninstitutions should take the lead in popularizing ADR through countrywide sensitization\r\nprograms, training mediators and neutral parties and building of legal and physical\r\ninfrastructure to support the activity,” Hon. Justice Katureebe said.

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He noted the court the court faced a challenge\r\nof balancing conflict of interest of employers, as workers demand higher wages,\r\nthe employers fight to pay lower wages to keep costs and production down so as\r\nto maximize profits. He advised that in approaching the dilemma, the court must\r\ndo a balancing act to protect the welfare of the goose that lays the golden\r\neggs that feed the goose.

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 The Chief Judge of the\r\nIndustrial Court , Hon. Justice Hon. Asaph Ruhinda Ntengye in his speech also\r\nsaid that, from the experiences of the East African countries, Uganda's Labor\r\nLegal framework needs to be reformed to give it competitive advantage within\r\nthe region with the most viable option being to  amend the constitution to provide for the\r\nenhanced status of the IC as a specialized Labor Court with inherent, original\r\nand unlimited jurisdiction to handle all matters relating to Labor and\r\nemployment disputes and with a status equal to the High Court of Uganda.

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Achievements 

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·        The\r\nCourt has registered tremendous progress since its inception.

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·        Vehicles\r\nwere procured for the Judges

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·        Judges\r\nwere funded to attend the CMJA in NZ last year

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·       148\r\ncases have been disposed of

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·        \r\nPublic\r\nconfidence in the court instilled due to the no. of cases so far registered

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·        \r\nADR\r\nhas been embraced. Cases are being settled at Mediation

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·        \r\nStudents\r\nare doing internship at the court

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·       JLOS\r\nhas offered support to the court by;-

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o  \r\nproviding\r\nfunds to train all Labour officers

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o  \r\nProviding\r\nbenches for the court hall

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o  \r\nProviding\r\nlaptops for the judges & Registrar

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·        \r\nILO\r\nsponsored the court to visit TZ Labour court on a study tour for benchmarking.

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·      The\r\nCourt has attained a semi-autonomous status and operates its own account.

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·       The\r\nCourt has a website www.industrialcourt.go.ug, where information about the\r\ncourt is posted. So far some Rulings have been posted.

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·        \r\nPanelists\r\nBudget has been set.

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·        \r\nFunding\r\nto the court has increased substantially

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·       The\r\ncourt has been able to hold this Open day and will make it an annual event 

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 Challenges

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The Industrial Court still faces both\r\nstructural and procedural challenges. There are also gaps in the management of\r\nthe court and staffing levels.

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