Unused leave periods can be accumulated - Labour Law Practitioner

A former head of Legal and Administration at the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Paapa Kwasi Danquah, has said claims that one automatically forfeits their leave when they do not utilize it under a given year is flawed per the labour laws.

Some labour analyst have advanced arguments that unused leave periods are forfeited and not automatically rolled over as accumulated leave.

This subject has re-emerged after President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo ordered the Auditor General, Daniel Domelevo, to proceed on his 123 days accumulated leave.

Meanwhile, the Auditor General has in a reply to the President’s directive, asked him to reconsider the decision since the action is unconstitutional.

Kwasi Danquah told Citi Business News that “workers who do not take their leave will forfeit or lose it. That will be against the law. The law as I see it is more nuanced than that.”

Akufo-Addo directs Domelevo to proceed on accumulated leave:

The President, Nana Akufo-Addo, directed the Auditor-General, Daniel Yaw Domelevo, to proceed on his accumulated annual leave which took effect from Wednesday, July 1, 2020.

A statement from the Communications Directorate of the Jubilee House further directed Mr. Domelevo to hand over all matters relating to his office to his Deputy, Mr. Johnson Akuamoah Asiedu. “The President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has directed Mr. Yaw Domelevo, the Auditor-General, to take his accumulated leave of 123 working days, according to records available to the Presidency, with effect from Wednesday, 1st July 2020.”

Nana Addo’s decision to ask the Auditor-General to take his leave is said to be based on sections 20 (1) and 31 of the Labour Act, 2003 (651).

The statement signed by the Director of Communications at the Presidency, Eugene Arhin indicated that the Auditor-General has taken only nine out of his 132 working days of his accumulated annual leave since assuming office in December 2016.

The move is also said to follow the precedent set by former President, John Evans Atta Mills when he asked the then Auditor-General, Edward Dua Agyeman to also proceed on his 264 accumulated annual leave in 2009.