The Employment and Labour Relations Court in Nairobi has ruled that employees in supervisory positions can be held responsible for operational failures committed by staff under their watch. The court found that a team leader at a banking institution, who was dismissed after a high-value transaction error, had a greater duty to verify the payment before approving it and could not shift responsibility to other team members. According to court documents obtained by Kenyans.co.ke, the dispute arose from a 2015 transaction in which Ksh48.18 million was erroneously transferred after the team leader incorrectly interpreted the details and validated the payment without completing the required verification checks.“The claimant was therefore found negligent in her duties as team leader, whose role was to validate each transaction to avoid losses to the respondent bank,” the judgement stated.The employee had moved to court after being dismissed, arguing that several officers were involved in processing the transaction and that another staff member had admitted responsibility for the error. She also told the court that she acted promptly after discovering the mistake, reporting it and initiating steps to recover the funds. Despite this, the court held that her position as team leader placed the greater responsibility on her to ensure the transaction was properly verified before it was released. “The claimant cannot blame her colleagues in the back office for not verifying the forex transaction before she approved and validated it. As the team leader, the greatest responsibility was with her,” the judgement added.The judgment found that the employer had a valid reason to terminate her employment and had followed the required disciplinary process before dismissing her.The judge also rejected the employee’s claim for compensation, notice pay and severance after finding that the dismissal was lawful and that severance did not apply to the case.Further, the court ruled that the employee was no longer entitled to preferential staff loan terms after her employment ended and allowed the employer’s counterclaim for Ksh9.78 million, which was the outstanding loan balance as of September 2022. The ruling signals a warning to senior employees that responsibility for checking, approving and monitoring their teams’ work can have direct consequences when operational failures result in financial loss.
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