Court orders reinstatement of 2 pregnant GNFS staff

Human Rights Court presided over by Justice of the Court Of Appeal sitting with additional responsibility as a High Court Judge, Justice Anthony Yeboah has ordered the reinstatement of two female staff of the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) who were dismissed for getting pregnant within the first three years of joining the service in breach of regulation 33(6) of the conditions of Service of the GNFS.

Regulation 33(6) states that ''A female employee shall not be dismissed on the ground that she is pregnant provided she has served the first three years”.

Grace Fosu and Thelma Hammond were dismissed from the Fire Service in 2014 after the Service discovered that they had taken seed in the first three years after joining the Service.

In the Judgement, the Court held that the decision by the Fire Service was discriminatory and a breach of the fundamental Human Rights of the two applicants in the matter.

The orders of the court was to the effect that regulation 33(6) of the Conditions of Service of the GNFS was discriminatory, unjustifiable, illegitimate and illegal.

The court ordered their reinstatement, payment of arrears of their salaries and benefits that accrued to them during the period of dismissal and a compensation in the sum of fifty Thousand Ghana cedis for the trauma and inevitable inconvenience of the wrongful dismal