Court Order GPHA To Pay GH¢2.08m Damages

An Accra High Court yesterday ordered the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA) to pay GH¢2,087,500 as general damages to 4,175 casual workers of the authority who were laid off in September 2002 during a re-organisation, exercise. The court also ordered the GPHA to pay additional GH¢2,087,500 as cost in favour of the ex-workers, as well as pay them their salaries, bonuses, entitlements and benefits as permanent workers for each year of service after the expiration of 154 days of continuous work in the authority for breaching its collective bargaining agreement.

Further, the court directed that the GPHA pays interest on all sums due the ex-workers at the current commercial bank rate beginning from the expiration of their 154 days of continuous work with the GPHA

The court, presided over by Justice Bright Mensah, gave the orders yesterday when it entered judgement in favour of the 4,175 ex- casual employees who initiated the legal action against the GPHA in May 2008.

According to the ex-workers, they were employed by the GPHA as casual or non-permanent employees until September 2002 when due to re-organisation they were laid off, without receiving any payment in lieu of notice, except some meagre amounts described by the authority as “golden handshake.”

However, they said, detailed severance packages were paid to each of the authority's permanent employees.

They stated that by the provisions of the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) negotiated on their behalf at various times of their employment, they ought to have been made permanent employees after working continuously for 154 days in a calendar year.

Some of them they argued had until their redeployment, worked for periods ranging from one year to 23 years.

In his judgment Justice Mensah, described the plaintiffs' case as “more probable” but said the defendant's case was filled with “inaccuracies and inconsistencies” an indication that the plaintiffs have been able to prove their case.

He said the GPHA breached its CBA by not converting the ex-casual workers to permanent workers, stressing that the wording of Article 19 (2) (i) and (ii) was plain that needs no interpretation.

He held that the ex-causal workers satisfied all the ingredients of the CBA- worked satisfactorily, no query for unsatisfactory work and worked regularly for 154 days- to have been made permanent workers.  

He said that none of the plaintiffs was queried for unsatisfactory work or had his appointment terminated until September 2002.

The judge said the GPHA “failed miserably” to produce record of attendance of the ex-causal workers, and it failed to show that the appointment of the ex- casual workers was terminated every three months.

Justice Mensah found the evidence by the plaintiffs' that they did equal work as the permanent workers probable, saying “the plaintiffs were discriminated against” and indicated that GPHA violated Article 24 (1) of the country's constitution.

He also rejected the defence claim that there was no work during the cocoa season, Christmas and Easter periods, saying despite its claim evidence before the court showed that GPHA was paying the ex-causal workers their monthly wages and contributed to their social security.

 
He said that the argument by the defence did not hold because Ghana is known to import all kinds of products including even toothpicks all year round and therefore GPHA cannot say that there was no work available during such periods.