[ 2021-02-23 ]

GCNet loses appeal on workers redundancy package
The Labour Division of the Accra High Court has
dismissed a legal action by the Ghana Community
Network Services Limited (GCNet) asking the court
to set aside an arbitration award in favour of
some 150 redundant staff of the company.
The court’s ruling means the arbitration award
which enjoins GCNet to pay redundancy package to
the 150 redundant staff is still in force.



Appeal

GCNet had indicated its willingness to pay the
redundancy package, but said it would do so in
“accordance with legal processes.”

In a statement, the Managing Director of GCNet, Mr
Alwin Hoegerle, said the company would appeal the
ruling of the High Court and exhaust all legal
remedies before any such payment would be made.

“We are eager to complete the adjudication
process so that we can execute the compensation
payments in an appropriate manner,” the company
said.



GCNet case

GCNet had argued before the High Court that the
arbitration award was null and void because the
group that led the workers to obtain the award
lacked capacity to represent the workers of
GCNet.

It was the case of the applicant that the group-
GCNet Staff Welfare Association lacked capacity to
represent the workers because it was not
registered as a statutory body and neither was it
registered with the Chief Labour Officer as a
trades union.


Court ruling

The court, presided over by Justice Frank Aboadwe
Rockson, however, ruled that throughout its 15
years of operations, GCNet had in several
instances recognised and dealt with the Staff
Welfare Association as the duly representative of
the workers of the company.



Examples of this recognition, the court held, were
when GCNet accepted that the association be made a
part of a redundancy negotiation it had with two
workers of the company, and the fact that company
agreed with the association to present the dispute
to the National Labour Commission (NLC) for
arbitration.

It was the considered view of the court that by
recognising the association through its conduct
and statement, GCNet could not now withdraw that
recognition as stipulated in Section 26 of the
Evidence Act, NRCD 323.

“By the statement and conduct of the applicant
(GCNet) in relation to their dealings with the
respondent association, they are estopped from
denying that GCNet Staff Welfare Association is
representing the staff in their arbitration award
on redundancy.

“The court find no merit in the application and
dismiss same,” the court held.

Termination

GCNet is an information technology firm that
facilitated trade services at the country’s
ports and had a contract with the government that
was expected to run until 2023.

In April last year, the government terminated the
contract, leading to a shutdown of its operations
in May also of last year.

The government cancelled the contract to allow
full rollout of a new customs clearing system,
Uni-Pass, which according to the Ghana Revenue
Authority (GRA), would centralise the processing
and handling of all import and export
documentations, a system known as a single window
clearing system.

As a result of the termination of the contract,
GCNET decided to lay off some of its staff and
accordingly notified the Chief Labour Officer of
its intended redundancy exercise.

Human Resource policy

GCNet had a Human Resource (HR) manual that
obliges it to use a certain formula to pay its
staff in the face of redundancy.

In view of the redundancy exercise, the management
of GCNet and the Staff Association signed a
Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to implement the
redundancy in conformity with the HR manual.

Following on from the MoU, the management of GCNet
issued termination letters to the affected staff
stating the set date for the redundancy take
effect as August 31, last year, and payments to be
done on or before June 30, last year.

Two days before the deadline for the payment of
the redundancy package, the management of GCNet
wrote to the staff association that it could not
pay the package and asked that the redundancy pay
as stipulated in the HR manual be renegotiated.

This led to a dispute that ended up at the NLC,
with the two parties agreeing to voluntary
arbitration.

Ruling

The arbitration panel held that GCNet must pay the
redundancy package as contained in the HR manual
because the redundancy package was already
predetermined.

It held that the MOU between the staff association
and GCNet was for the implementation of the
redundancy exercise and not for a negotiation of
the redundancy package because that was already
contained in the HR manual.

“In fact, we find that there has been no
negotiation of redundancy pay during this
redundancy exercise,” the panel held.

Source - Graphic Online

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