Former Employees of GPHA want Parliament's decision on Report

Tema, June 6, GNA - Former employees of Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA) who petitioned Parliament on the issue of their entitlements have appealed to the Speaker to come out with the final decision of the House on the matter.

In a letter to the Speaker of Parliament dated June 2, signed by Mr Stephen Ashitey Adjei, Leader of the over 4000 ex-workers and copied to the Ghana News Agency in Tema, they said their information was that the Joint Committee on Employment, Social Welfare and State Enterprises and Transport, had submitted its report on the matter.

Mr Adjei said GPHA laid-off more than 4000 of its non permanent workers in September 2002, as a result of a re-organisation exercise. He said they objected to compensation packages from their former employers, claiming that the packages were inadequate. Mr Adjei said as a result, five of them instituted a legal action against the company for breaching the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) at the Tema High Court.

Mr Adjei said after his colleagues had finally won the case at the Supreme Court, the rest of the victims from both Tema and Takoradi instituted a fresh suit against GPHA to claim the monies due them as endorsed by the Supreme Court in the previous action. He recollected that on January 18, 2006, the Tema High Court ordered the company to pay each of the 4,195 ex-workers an amount of 500 Ghana Cedis only, for breach of the 2000-02 CBA.

He said the court further ordered GPHA to pay each ex-worker who had at least worked for 154 working days, an amount of 1000 Ghana Cedis as stipulated in the CBA.

Mr Adjei said the court also ordered that for illegally violating the economic rights of its former employees under the 1992 Constitution, GPHA paid 1000 Ghana Cedis multiplied by the number of years each ex-worker had worked with it.