PSMAS will not pay Dube's $3 million pay-out

Premier Service Medical Aid Society says it will not pay its former group chief executive officer Cuthbert Dube $3 million in backdated salaries awarded by an arbitrator, arguing that his contract had been terminated by the time of the arbitration process.

This comes as the public has expressed outrage over a ruling by arbitrator Dumisani Nyoni ordering PSMAS to pay Dube his salary of $230 000 a month backdated to January 2014, plus his full benefits.

In a judgment delivered last Thursday, Nyoni ruled in favour of Dube, awarding him $3 million and ordering his reinstatement.

In an appeal that seeks to suspend the arbitrator's decision, PSMAS and PSMI through their lawyer James Chikobvu Muzangaza said they should wait for determination of the dispute at the Labour Court.

In the case against PSMAS, Muzangaza argued that the arbitrator erred in ordering that Dube be paid his salary arrears at the rate of $138 000 a month, when there was no basis for such.

He argued that Nyoni erred in finding that Dube's contract of employment subsisted as at the time of the arbitration proceedings, when all facts and circumstances as presented to him and as had been acknowledged by the parties at conciliation stage, showed without a doubt that the said contract had been terminated.