Covid-19: Ghana Christian Int'l School 'Indiscriminately' Lay Off Faculty Members, Staff

Ghana Christian International High School (GCIHS) exists as a non-profit making institution for the purpose of educating young people in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. The school subscribes to the truth of the Christian faith as revealed in the Bible and has campuses in Sota, Dodowa and Puma Adeiso.

Following the presidential directive on 15th March, 2020 that all educational institutions should be shut down due to the Covid-19 pandemic, an affected staff of Ghana Christian International High School who is familiar with the matter told this portal that the school had to truncate second term academic activities barely two weeks to the schools’ official vacation date.

The source said on the 23rd March, 2020 even final year students who were required to still be in school to ensure adequate preparation for their final examination had to proceed home including all faculty and staff whose services would have been needed during their stay.

On condition of anonymity, the source narrated. Find comments below:

We received a Memorandum dated 23rd March, 2020 indicating the repercussion of Covid-19 on operations of the school. To mitigate this problem, these measures were indicated to be executed by management:

• That staff of the school has to be reduced effective March, 2020 as the finance of the school cannot support the current level of staff emoluments.

• That all faculty and stuff would be paid full salaries for month of March,2020

• That the retained staff would be paid half salaries from 1st April,2020

• That these are force majeure actions and therefore the conditions of service does not apply.

On 31st March, 2020, over thirty (30) affected faculty and staff members received another memorandum to the effect of the directives above.

The memorandum indicated that the services of the affected faculty members and staff are no longer needed effective from the aforementioned date. However, if situation normalize anytime soon, we will have opportunity to reapply.

As compensation and redundancy in disguise, it was indicated that in addition to our full payment for March, 2020 we shall receive half of our salaries in spite of the fact that the Coronavirus epidemic, which is a force majeure situation affects our employment contract.

We challenge the measures taken by the school to deal with this crisis as it breaches the conditions of service. We hold the position that this is a clear redundancy the school is compelled to embark on and should clarify to her faculty and staff. Again, the necessary procedures regarding redundancy as stipulated in the school’s condition of service should be duly followed.

Affected faculty and staff are of the view that this is an inconsiderate and hasty decision that could have been properly handled to protect the common interest of faculty, staff and the school. It is a conspicuous act of witch-hunting and victimization aimed at using this global pandemic to indiscriminately dismiss faculty members and staff. We would therefore not hesitate to share our grievances in the face of this challenge and if we remain unheard we will be compelled to take legal action.

Below is attached documents: