SOS Children's Villages Liberia has been ordered to reinstate Mr. Alieu and pay his lost wages, including salary and all other benefits contained in his employment contract.
Monrovia, Liberia, August 1, 2024: Liberia's Labor Ministry has found SOS Children's Village Liberia liable for "wrongful dismissal and unfair labor practices," after a dismissed SOS national director's complaint was heard.
SOS Children's Villages' former National Director, Mr. Augustine Allieu, had complained to the Ministry, accusing roughly two years ago, accusing SOS of wrongful dismissal and unfair labor practices.
Liberian labor law requires that the investigation of labor complaints start from the Ministry.
The Ministry's ruling adjudged SOS Children's Villages Liberia liable and ordered the entity to unconditionally reinstate Mr. Allieu.
SOS is also ordered to pay Mr. Alieu his lost wages, including salary and all other benefits contained in his employment contract for the 26 months since he was wrongfully dismissed.
The ruling also states that where SOS management can show that their former National Director cannot be reinstated, they are ordered to pay for his lost time of 26 months of past salaries in addition to all other benefits in his contract.
Additionally, the ministry ordered SOS to pay Alieu 24 months of his salary as compensation before the employment relationship can be severed.
Labor complaints filed with the ministry are investigated in depth where the parties are represented by their respective lawyers.
Various pieces of evidence are proffered and witness testimonies are entertained at every stage of the hearing.
Proceedings in labor claims at the ministry are quasi-judicial and rulings are appealed to the National Labor Court of Liberia.
In its termination letter to Mr. Allieu dated April 12, 2022, SOS Children's Villages Liberia claimed that the former National Director was dismissed for several administrative reasons.
The investigation found merits in Mr. Augustine Allieu's complaint that his dismissal was illegal and unjustified.
From both witness testimonies and documentary evidence, the Ministry of Labor said the SOS Liberia could not prove its case.
The ministry found that SOS Liberia had failed to implement a fair internal investigation as required by law before its final decision to dismiss Alieu was reached.
The hearing concluded that what SOS Liberia did was a calculated attempt to frustrate and disgrace its former National Director.
The Labor Ministry continued that the internal investigation that SOS carried out was merely a formality and the allegations used as the basis to terminate Alieu's contract were not material and did not amount to grave misconduct.
In early 2022, Mr. Augustine Allieu faced a rape accusation from a minor in the care of SOS Liberia.
The female adolescent through the SOS interim leadership accused Mr. Augustine Allieu of sexual involvement with her that resulted in her pregnancy.
The four-month police investigation that followed established that the rape allegations were false.
The DNA test result showed the accused was not the father as the juvenile had claimed his alleged sex with her resulted in the pregnancy.
The DNA test done on the child of the minor found Wayne McIntosh, a former staff at SOS Buchanan, to be the father of the minor's child.
Wayne McIntosh was subsequently arrested and charged with statutory rape, kept in prison without trial for over a year, and is now released by the court on medical grounds.
McIntosh allegedly goes about his normal life as a free man in Monrovia. The Liberia National Police investigation further found that Mr. Allieu was out of the country on the date that the minor alleged that he had raped her at his residence.
Meanwhile, Mr. Augustine Allieu has accused elements within the SOS Children's Villages Regional Office of a regime change plot for SOS Liberia against him.
He further alleged a plan to "francophonize SOS West, Central and North Africa (WCNA) region as he was the last English-speaking National Director.
He claimed it was done through audit manipulation, framing him up, and through fake internal investigation with cooked-up results and the use of a minor to plant false rape accusations on him.
Prosper Ndione, from Senegal who investigated Mr. Augustine Allieu, ended up as an interim National Director and later as Alieu's replacement.
The former National Director was suspended and served his dismissal letter while attending to the police investigation into the rape accusation at the LNP.
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Following police declaration that the rape accusation could only be a lie against him, Mr. Allieu filed the wrongful dismissal complaint and a defamation lawsuit against SOS Children's Villages Liberia, Regional and International along with all other accomplices that worked to tarnish his reputation and standing.
Mr. Augustine Allieu is a Sierra Leonean national, expatriate, and career development professional in the international development sector in the sub-region.
He has served in leadership posts at several international NGOs in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Senegal.
Before taking the helm at SOS Children's Villages Liberia in July 2017, he served as Head of Program Strategy at Plan International, West and Central Africa Region.
He had earlier served as Country Director at Plan International Sierra Leone and Country Director at Plan International Liberia in succession.
Before that, he served as Head of Monitoring and Evaluation and later, Head of Programs at the Catholic Relief Services Liberia Program.
