The 2nd Round Labor Appeals Court confirmed the sentence that in the first instance had condemned Gas Sayago SA – a consortium made up of UTE and Ancap to manage the failed project of a regasification plant – to pay Marta Jara the sum of $6,885,153 which today is equivalent to about US$ 175,000, for unpaid wages, leave, Christmas bonus, vacation salary, severance pay, fines, mandatory damages.
The opinion, which was accessed by El Observador and which confirmed the original ruling issued in October of last year, responds to a situation caused by Jara’s role as general manager of that company, a position she held between 2012 and 2016.
On March 11 of that year, the Gas Sayago board had granted Jara unpaid leave for a period of 180 days, renewable until further resolution. This allowed the hierarch to assume as president of Ancap, appointed by the government of Tabaré Vázquez. On March 17, 2020 – the new authorities of the entity had already been appointed by Luis Lacalel Pou – Jara tried to return to Gas Sayago.
For this purpose, he sent a series of emails to Fabián Figueroa, the consortium’s accountant, waiting for instructions. The ruling includes Figueroa’s response: “I thank you for following orders these days, for the time being and given the health situation we are not going to the office, so I could not give you a notebook. We keep in touch and I notify you of any news”.
Without news, on April 17 Jara sends a telegram to the company informing that “it is in order” and that he had not received the salary for March, demanding payment and requesting clarification of his employment situation. He did the same on April 24, also without response.
According to the ruling, on May 27, Jara sent a new telegram asking to be reinstated within 24 hours. Finally, on June 1, 2020, she sends another communication, considering herself indirectly fired.
The amount to be paid must be updated from December 2020 until its effective payment, and corresponds to 32 nominal amounts, subject to the corresponding legal discounts.
In its ruling, the court understands that Gas Sayago committed a breach by not giving the former hierarch an effective occupation or paying her salary once the unpaid leave was over, since Jara demonstrated his clear will to maintain his source of employment. “Gas Sayago was obliged to reinstate Jara in her previous position,” she affirms.
Jara’s situation had been included among the foreseeable losses that Gas Sayago would add – in the process of liquidation according to a bill that the Executive Branch sent to Parliament. It is, however, a small part of the $40 million in lawsuits that the State risks losing among all the cases it keeps open. The last official balance indicated that, until December 31, 2021, the regasification project generated losses of US$ 213 million.
