High Court has ordered FENAKA Corporation to compensate an employee who was unethically dismissed in connection to a vote issue in the Local Council Elections.

The court ordered the employee’s compensation on Thursday, after Aishath Nishana, an employee at the FENAKA branch in Kandoodhoo island of Thaa atoll appealed the case at the court. Nishana had been an employee at the Kandoodhoo branch since December 2009.

The FENAKA employee was dismissed as she “failed” to follow through an instruction by her seniors to pen a “code” on her ballot paper in the 2017 council elections, that would reveal who she cast her vote for.

As such, she was transferred to the Nolhivaranfaru branch in Haa Dhaal atoll without prior notice, and consecutively dismissed from her post.

Following this, she lodged the case at the Employment Tribunal, asserting that her dismissal was against the employment act and transferring her was a move to coerce her into resigning.

The Employment Tribunal had stated that although she was transferred to another branch against ethics, her dismissal was in accordance with the employment act.

Nishana then appealed the case at the High Court, following which FENAKA had offered her position back, under a decision by the company’s board to rehire employees who were unethically dismissed, in a board meeting held during last year. The High Court noted that this makes it clear that FENAKA has confessed to dismissing her illegally.

In light of this, the court has ordered the company to compensate Nishana from the date of her dismissal, to the date she was rehired.

The case was presided by judges Mohamed Niyaz, Shuaib Hussain Zakariyya and Ali Sameer.

Some of the findings by the incumbent administration of President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih include the unfair dismissals of over 300 employees during the former administration of now-incarcerated former president Abdulla Yameen. The Solih administration has since compensated a number of these unfairly dismissed individuals after having opened the opportunity to submit complaints regarding such issues.