Brouhaha Over Severance Pay

After trading accusations and counter accusations amid the threat of going to court, the 366 grumbling ex-workers of Prestea Gold Resources (PGR) have finally filed a law suit at a Sekondi High Court against their former employers and the Bogoso Gold Limited (BGL), a mining company based at Bogoso in the Wassa West district of the Western Region, who have been given the right to do surface mining at Prestea and also acquire 45 per cent shares in the Prestea underground mine.

The plaintiffs are praying the court for a declaration that they were entitled to be paid severance pay in accordance with the collective bargaining agreement dated January 2000 between them and the first defendant, which is PGR.

The plaintiffs are also seeking a declaration that the difference respectively of any sums received by them as severance pay and contained under the said collective bargaining agreement. In their statement of claim, accompanying the writ, which was filed at the High Court on February 3, this year, the plaintiffs said they are all ex-employees of the first defendant company.

According to them both the first and the second defendants are mining companies engaged in the business of gold mining with the first having Preatea as its base and Bogoso as the base of the second defendant.

The statement of claim further said sometime in April 2002, the first defendant declared the plaintiffs as redundant but failed to pay them their respective severance entitlements as enshrined in clause 10:09(d) of their collective bargaining agreement signed in the year 2000.

Plaintiffs are contending that they performed all provisions, which fell due contained in the said collective bargaining prior to the severance of the contracts of service of the plaintiffs.

In the case of the second defendant, which is Bogoso Gold Limited, plaintiffs averred that it has acquired 45 per cent interest in the first defendant company and agreed on forming a new company by name "New Century Mines" which is yet to be registered but which they had made sign posts for and provided facilities to utilize the assets of the first defendant and also the assets to which the first defendant was entitled to utilize.

The plaintiffs who attached to the writ all salaries that they were being paid by the management of the Prestea Gold Resources are therefore seeking a declaration that they were entitled to be paid severance pay in accordance with the collective bargaining agreement dated January 2000.

When the management of BGL was contacted, its General Manager, Mr. Peter Claringbull, said he is aware of the wrangling going on between ex-workers of PGR and their management but they have not been served with any writ, adding that what this reporter was telling him was news to him.

He nevertheless told the Chronicle that so far as his outfit was concerned they do not owe either PGR or their ex-workers, adding that they have paid all that they are supposed to give to them. No date has yet been fixed for the hearing of the case.

The plaintiffs are being represented by Mr. Kwabena Gyamfi from the Kumanin chambers in Takoradi.