Dismissal by radio must stop - Agyei

Accra, Aug. 27, GNA - Mr Christian Appiah Agyei, a Member of the National Reconciliation Commission, on Wednesday decried the dismissal of workers by radio announcement and press publications. He described such dismissals as inhuman and bad and said they must stop.

He said it was rather sad that the practice had been a characteristic of labour since the country won independence, and called on the public to collectively correct the situation.

"Dismissal on radio must stop. It is inhuman and a bad practice," Mr Agyei said at the Commission's sitting in Accra.

He was speaking after Mr Ebenezer Nii Chaiku Armah, former Accountant in charge of Budgeting and Finance, Public Works Department (PWD), told the story of his dismissal by a radio announcement on August 23, 1985.

Mr Agyei, who is also former Secretary General of the Ghana Trade Union Congress (TUC), said many people had lost their lives because of such announcements.

He spoke of a chief executive who got home only to meet relations waiting on him to sympathise with him on the loss of his job, while he did not know of his dismissal.

He said the man had a shock and had never been himself since then.

Mr Chaiku Armah, who is also former Chairman of the Adabraka Odorna Unit Committee of the erstwhile Committees for the Defence of the Revolution (CDR), said he was traumatised by his dismissal. Mr Armah, who said he worked for 30 years, told the commission that he was informed of the dismissal at a time he was going to visit his sick mother.

He said he was not queried for claims of not paying for goods, which were never supplied, but was dismissed.

Mr Armah said he had not been paid any benefit since his dismissal. "I lost my gratuity, pension, and everything," he said, adding that the upkeep of his family, and his children's education suffered badly. Mr Armah said he petitioned the head of department of his former employers, and the then Ombudsman, but to no avail.

His employers also failed to honour a recommendation from the Ministry of Works and Housing, to retire him with benefits. He said he sent another petition to the late Col. J. Y. Assasie, Co-ordinator of the CDRs, who wrote to the Ministry of Works and Housing, but its reply was that "the dismissal was by a radio announcement."

Mr Armah said the pursuit of his benefits was stalled after the death of Col. Assasie.

He said his colleagues, through some influential people, had their benefits.

Aside his benefits, Mr Armah prayed the Commission to invite Dr Abubakar Alhassan, then Minister for Works and Housing, to explain the basis of his dismissal and why he (Mr Armah) was not offered any avenue to defend himself.

Another witness, Ex-Lance Corporal Paul Adigah Akorah, formerly of the Border Guards Unit, told the Commission that he was dismissed from the Service in 1980 on a false allegation of extorting 120 cedis from alleged textile smugglers at Aflao.

He said he was recalled into the Army after the December 31, 1981 coup and later assigned to be the Dispatch Rider of the then Army Commander General Arnold Quainoo.

Ex-Lance Corporal Akorah said he never performed that special assignment because he was not given a motorbike, although he was paid. He said the Military Intelligence machinery subjected him to interrogations after the failed coup attempts on in November 23, 1982 and that of Giwa on June 19, 1983. He said the Military Intelligence suspected that he had a hand in them since he had the same name as one Akorah, who had been implicated in the plots.

Ex-Lance Corporal Akorah said he spent more than eight years in prison, for what appeared to be suspicion of complicity in the June 1983 failed coup.

The payment of salary stopped after his arrest and was discharged without any benefits since 1991.

Lance Corporal Akorah said he found both his Toyota Corona car and his gold plated bed stolen after his release. He prayed the Commission to be re-instated with the rank of Warrant Officer Class One, or payment of his pension. 27 Aug. 03