Court worried over delay in adjudicating case between govt & 12 labour unions
The Industrial and Labour Division of the Accra High Court yesterday expressed concern over the delay in the adjudication of the case between the government and the 12 labour unions over the tier-two pension scheme.
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The court stated that continued adjournment of the case could delay the expeditious hearing of the matter and, therefore, advised the parties to cooperate with each other.
The court reminded the parties involved in the case that they owed it a duty to the country to ensure that it was dealt with as early as possible.
“Little issues that will obstruct the hearing of the matter should not be allowed,” the court, presided over by Mr Justice Saeed Kweku Gyan, stated.
Adjournment
The court adjourned the case to February 29, 2015.
Yesterday’s adjournment came after counsel for the Bank of Ghana (BoG), Mr Samuel Cudjoe, had told the court that he did not have any prior knowledge of the case and asked the court to step it down.
According to him, he only got to know of the case when he heard of it on radio yesterday morning and had gone to court to move a motion without a docket on the case.
“I only came to the court and received a text message from the Deputy Legal Head of the BoG informing me that our bank had received the hearing notice this morning,” he told the court.
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However, the court did not take kindly to his request and enquired why the bank had not followed up on the issue.
Improper serving
The court heard that there was an improper service of notice of hearing on the Central Bank following the failure of a bailiff of the court to properly serve the notice of hearing on the bank.
The bailiff, with 19 years experience, who was severely rebuked in open court, told the court that he had served the hearing notice on a worker at the BoG’s registry, instead of the secretary to the bank.
On January 20, 2015, the court adjourned the hearing to January 25, this year due to a motion filed by the BoG to set aside a counter-claim filed against it by the 12 defendants.
The court had maintained that there was no proof on its records that the BoG had been served with notice of hearing and ordered the court registrar to serve the BoG with the notice of hearing before the next adjourned date.
Interlocutory injunction
At the last sitting, the court granted an interlocutory injunction sought by the state and restraining labour unions from embarking on further strikes.
The 12 labour unions were jointly sued by the government for proceeding on strike without due process.
The government, among other things, had asked the court to declare that it (government) was the employer and had the power to appoint a trustee to manage the tier-two pension funds of workers.
But that claim has been challenged by the 12 unions who, in their response to the claims of the government, also issued a counter-claim, praying the court to compel the BoG to disclose details of the tier-two pension funds lodged with the bank.
Public sector workers suspect foul play that their tier-two pension funds have been misappropriated, but the Central Bank filed an application seeking to dismiss the counter motion filed by the labour unions.