Ex-Ashanti Workers Sue Company

Over five hundred former casual and contract workers of Ashanti Goldfields Company (AGC) have filed a legal suit against the company for what they describe as unlawful termination of appointment. Jointly sued with AGC is the Ghana Mineworkers Union of the Trade Union Congress, which signed a collective agreement on behalf of the workers.

The aggrieved workers, were separately engaged by the company from 1992 to the year 2000 but were laid off between 1997 and 2000. Solicitors for four of the workers, Gaskia Chambers, filed the writ at the Kumasi High Court on behalf of all the 512 workers.

In a 39-point statement, the workers maintained that although they were contracted as casual workers for six months, the AGC maintained some of them for five years. It said the AGC made them undergo medical fitness before they were contracted, but the company failed to take them through the same process after their appointment was terminated.

The workers say throughout the period that they were engaged, they were discriminated against in terms of salaries and other benefits as compared to their permanent colleagues.

They are also challenging the AGC’s decision to maintain 619 of the casual workers as permanent staff, although some of those who were laid off had served the company for longer periods. In the view of the workers the action taken by the company is unfair, unjust, discriminatory and at variance with the Constitution of the Republic of Ghana.