Blue Skies contempt ruling is bogus

CRIES GHANA FEDERATION OF LABOUR

The Ghana Federation of Labour has criticized a recent ruling by the newly established Industrial and Labour Court in a contempt case – the Republic versus Ruth Smith Adjei of Blue Skies Company Limited ex-parte Richard Brakatu and Felix Djan.

In a petition to the Chief Justice signed by its Secretary General, Mr. Abraham Koomson, the Federation Condemned what it calls the anti-worker posture of the Judge, His Lordship Mr. Justice Kwabena Asuman – Adu and urged the Chief Justice to take steps to position the specialized court to respond to the concept and objective which informed the setting up of the Labour court. Recalling the facts of the case, the Federation said, three leaders of a group of Blue Skies Products Workers alleging frustration by management in their bid to join a trade union of their choice and accusing management of imposing an Enterprise Based Union (Blue Skies Staff Association (BSSA) on all the workers, issued a writ of Summons against the company and the BSSA. The Chief Labour Officer was also joined in the suit because the BSSA had earlier filed a suit to restrain the Chief Labour Officer from carrying out a verification exercise to determine the appropriate trade union to be issued with a Collective Bargaining Certificate.

Whilst the suit was pending, the company took certain decisions against two out of the three plaintiffs necessitating the application for contempt against the General Manager of the company.

The major issue about management’s behavior was the systematic elimination of all the plaintiffs from the employment to kill the substantive case in total disregard of the reliefs pending at the court which included illegal deduction of union dues by the company for the BSSA.

The dues deduction did not stop even though it was a critical issue among the reliefs, rather the amount of money being deducted at source by management was increased by 100% and this was strongly raised by applicants in court. According to the petition, the victimization of Richard Brakatu who was laid off from the employment without exhaustion of laid down procedure and the threat of dismissal of his colleague Felix Djan was a misplaced disciplinary procedure under the conditions of service of the company and were argued out strongly in court by applicant’s counsel to prove the ill- motivated intention of the management to abort the trial to interfere with the administration of justice. The Federation noted Mr. Justice Asuman Adu’s bias against the two poor, distressed workers who had opted to rely on the judicial process to seek redress.

It said, the Judge’s prejudice was betrayed by his award of GH¢1,000.00 against the workers followed with a threat to imprison them if they default in paying the amount in seven days.

The Federation noted that the ruling has far-reaching consequences for workers and the Trade Union Movement at large with little recognition of promoting the purpose of the Labour Act and the Constitution which is supreme law of the land. This is with regards to social justice, economic development, industrial peace and harmony.

In the view of the Federation, the ruling reflects a lack of understanding of the Challenge faced by workers and the ever-changing industrial environment and sets a dangerous precedent that could seriously undermine the rights of workers under the law.

Its repercussion could be the loss of confidence in the judicial system by workers and the option to take Law into their own hands.

Ghana Federation of Labour consequently urged the Chief Justice to endeavor to develop training and orientation programs in Collaboration with the International Labour Organization to build the capacity of judges manning the labour courts to enable them to appreciate the dynamics of industrial relations and dispute adjudication. Source:daily democrat