Court orders reimbursement for Mega Maldives pay cuts

Civil Court has ordered the bankrupt Mega Maldives to provide reimbursement for slashing the salaries of the employees who were in their employ.

The employees had agreed to a 20 percent cut in their salaries, after Mega Maldives promised to reimburse them the money when the company got an investor and business picked up again, but later filed a lawsuit when the company declared bankruptcy and was dissolved.

More than 40 former employees of Mega Maldives have sued the company for reimbursement. The Civil Court has ruled in 25 of the cases, and the remainder are still active at the court.

The ruling issued by Civil Court in the 25 cases last Sunday says even though Mega Maldives arranged with its employees to reimburse the salary cut once the company started doing better, the company’s liquidators sent a letter to the employees on March 7, 2018 agreeing the company needed to reimburse the salary cuts.

It said that based on the civil standard, the court found Mega Maldives needed to reimburse the employees for the 20 percent cut in their salaries. It ordered the company to complete the reimbursement within 11 days, starting from last Sunday.

Some of the former employees need to be reimbursed USD 1,500 while others need to be reimbursed USD 1,600.

The former employees had also sued for their salary during the notice period. However, the Civil Court ruled against the claim, citing the Employment Act does not specify notice needs to be given during bankruptcy.

Mega Maldives was the first Maldivian international airline. The company ceased its flight operations due to financial trouble in May, 2017. Its employees were put on non-pay leave and all its assets liquidated.