Action Aid Racism: Global Campaign salutes Dede Amanor-Wilks

May 1st, 2012

As part of the worldwide recognition of the hardwork of workers, the Global Campaign against racial discrimination wishes to salute all workers for their effort in changing the world through production.

The Campaign, however, sees that the celebration cannot be recognised without expressing solidarity to women who have and continue to suffer from economic and class discrimination in their working places.

Two years after sacking its International Director for West & Central Africa, Ghanaian Dede Amanor-Wilks, Action Aid International has taken the extraordinary step of announcing that it is sending witnesses from the organisation's highest level to testify at the next court hearing in Nairobi, Kenya on June 4.

It is very much regretful that the two witnesses named are Irene Ovonji-Odida, Action Aid's International Chair, and Ramesh Singh, the former CEO who fired Dede Amanor by email on 5 March 2010.

It is surprising that the International Chair of a prominent human rights organisation would expose herself in this way and descend so low in favour of labour injustice.

Also surprising is that Stanley Arumugam, Action Aid's Human Resources director, has decided not to appear before the Court to testify against Amanor-Wilks, given his role in assisting Ramesh Singh to fire Dede. In addition to being its Action Aid's international director, human resources, Stanley Arumugam is also the international director responsible for information technology, to whom regional IT heads report.

We understand that for the past twelve months or more, either Arumugam or sources close to him has been sending Dede suspicious emails. What could be his intention in sending these emails, hoping that the Global Campaign manages to grasp all linkages from a suspicious source to expose the source most?

It is therefore important to pose this fundamental question; Is Action Aid engaged in email hacking?

Allegations over information about Action Aid's email hacking activities has begun reaching the Campaign from former employees of the organisation who claim that their email accounts were hacked or that the organisation pressured them to hack into fellow employees' accounts.

It is worth stating that email hacking is a breach of the Computer Misuse Act and therefore, the campaign will remain relentless in pursuing investigations.

If email hacking did go on in the organisation, contrary to what is claimed by some employees and former employees, then Stanley Arumugam as the director responsible, would definitely know about it.

Why is it that two years after helping Ramesh Singh to fire Dede, Stanley still keeps sending Dede email invitations? The Campaign is aware that there are occasions when invitations to join some professional networking sites and other strange emails are sent and which looks suspiciously like links to phishing websites, which can be used to extract information or destroy computer systems. Phishing sites generally mimic legitimate sites and are used to bait victims to reveal passwords and other sensitive data.

But if email hacking is not the issue, perhaps Stanley Arumugam is reluctant to come to court for fear he will be questioned about his dual role in Dede Amanor's sacking. Is it true that he is on the Recruitment Panel that allegedly decided not to shortlist Dede for the CEO position for which she had applied fair and square?

Source within the organisation understands that a London-based recruitment firm hired to manage the recruitment allegedly phoned Dede in Nairobi to say that her application had been 'extremely well presented' and to advise her how to go about reversing the decision not to shortlist her. But her attempts to do so excited the anger of Ramesh Singh, the outgoing CEO, who decided to try and fire her before the results of shortlisting were announced.

The Global Campaign, on this day May 1st, wishes to salute Dede Amanor-Wilks for her bold step in taking a legal action against Action Aid International. It is our conviction that a victory for Dede is a victory for all progressives and all who believe in the protection of the inalienable rights of individuals.

Join the Global Campaign to help protect workers right.

Issued by

Kweku Dadzie
Chairman
Global Campaign Against Racial Discrimination