Black box from crashed Ethiopian Airlines flight recovered
Workplace gender equality
A New Global Health 50/50 report reveals that most leading organisations active in global health have a long way to go towards workplace gender equality. The ground-breaking analysis of 198 global organisations active in health, covering an estimated 4.5 million employees worldwide, reveals that the majority are failing to deliver on sexual harassment policies, gender pay gap reporting, and gender parity in leadership positions.
Launched in Ethiopia by President, Sahle-Work Zewde (Pictured), the second Global Health 50/50 Report, Equality Works, shows that few of the world’s top global organisations active in health are achieving gender equality for their employees. This is despite more than a year’s worth of news headlines detailing widespread gender-based discrimination in workplaces around the world. The report exposes pay gaps; lack of policies on parental leave, sexual harassment and flexible working; and a systematic absence of women in leadership roles.
Intercontinental Addis ordered to change name
After a six year legal battle, the Lideta Federal High Court ruled in favor of Intercontinental Hotels Corporation (IHG), ordering JH Simex Plc to cease using the trade name ‘Intercontinental Addis’. The international chain sued both J.H. Simex and Semachew Kebede for using a trade name to attain unlawful enrichment.
The court also ordered the hotel, located in Kazanches, to stop using the name ‘Intercontinental Addis’ in advertisements, other equipment and also forfeit their website.
The court also ordered J.H. Simex Plc to pay 750,000 birr in compensation to Intercontinental Hotels Corporation with a nine percent interest. The court was unable to find legal documents needed to ascertain the hotel’s actual profits from tax offices and auditors since the hotel began operating.
Eyob Hagos, lawyer for Intercontinental Hotels Corporation told Capital that the compensation payment was unfair.
“Since 2006 Intercontinental Addis earned millions of USD in profit by using our trade name. Through simple mathematics one can see that they got a lot of money for their rooms. However, the court gave us a paltry sum of less than one million birr. We asked the court to call the relevant tax office to find out their actual revenue but the court did not want to do that,” he added.
The Court decide that ‘Intercontinental Addis’ and ‘Intercontinental Hotels’ are very similar and confusing to customers likely leading them to think Intercontinental Addis is a chain hotel of Intercontinental Hotels Corporation.
The defendant argued that the trade name for their hotel, registered as Intercontinental Hotels & Resorts, is egg-shaped. Whereas, the local registration is simply listed as Intercontinental Hotel, and uses a rectangular shape.
The defendants stated that they did not violate the plaintiff’s ownership rights because the name was given by the proper authority after ensuring a response from what was at the time called the Ministry of Trade & Industry on August 21, 2006; hence, the trade name was not registered by another venture.
Five years ago, the High Court ruled in favor of the defendants, J.H. Simex, the company which administers the Intercontinental Addis and owner, Simachew Kebede, who was in jail for another corruption charge and later pardoned. It rejected IHG’s argument that they could be represented as a business without a registration and license from the country’s authorized body, and closed the case.
However, in 2016 The Cassation Bench of the Supreme Court reversed the High Court’s decision and allowed Intercontinental Hotels’ lawsuit against local hotel Intercontinental Addis to go forward.
The lawsuit began on March 29, 2013. Intercontinental Hotels Corporation was exclusively registered by the plaintiff at the former Ministry of Trade & Industry on October 2, 2001, and renewed by the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) on October 1, 2013.
Condo Conundrum
Other condos in holding pattern
The Oromo Democratic Party (ODP) has come out against the latest condo transfer. Last Wednesday the city administration transferred thousands of condos, primarily on the outskirts of Addis Ababa, through a lottery draw carried out at InterContinental Addis Hotel.
ODP said there is not a clear boundary between Addis Ababa and Oromia so transferring the houses at this stage is unjust.
“We are not against the people’s freedom to live where they want but our people should benefit from their own land. Some of the condos are built in the Oromia region so we are working on this issue and at the same time we firmly oppose the transfer until things are solved,’’ said in a statement.
After ODP’s statement there was strong reaction on social media from residents in Addis Ababa. Some posts read that the ODP statement went against people’s freedom to live in their own country.
Others agreed with ODP, saying that building condos without the approval of Oromia state on Oromia land is unacceptable and the condo construction displaced many farmers who were not fairly compensated.
Addis Ababa’s Deputy Mayor, Takele Uma, decided to transfer some condos to farmers and their children whose land was appropriated for development. The mayor also unveiled a plan to tailor housing developments to farming communities.
The decision to offer 50 percent of completed condominiums to farming communities, in exchange for giving up land to development, pushing aside residents of Addis Ababa who have been on a waiting list for well over a decade, has caused frustration among residents.
The current transfer was for people who registered to purchase the government-subsidized condominium houses under a 20/80 plan. This means they had at least contributed 20% of the total cost of the house in a blocked account. People also could qualify under a 40/60 program by saving at least 40% of the total cost. Names were then drawn in a lottery.
In related news, sources at the Addis Ababa Saving House Development Enterprise told Capital that over 2,000 condo houses, of the 40/60 scheme had not been transferred, even though they are almost in equal status with the condos that had already been transferred.
“They could transfer the condos, I don’t know why they are holding them,” a source said.
Capital’s attempt to get answers from the city about the case was not fruitful.
Since the government introduced the national condominium housing program in 2005, the Addis Ababa City Administration has transferred 175,000 condominium houses to residents.
