NLC directs GCNet Staff Welfare Association to call off strike action

The National Labour Commission (NLC) has formally ordered the GCNet Staff Welfare Association to rescind their decision to proceed on strike with immediate effect.

In a statement issued by the Commission on Friday, October 9, 2020, it unequivocally directed the leadership of the association to appear before the Commission on Wednesday, October 14, 2020.

“The National Labour Commission hereby directs the striking workers to call off the strike immediately and appear before the Commission on Wednesday, October 14, 2020, at 2:00 p.m. The invitation is in accordance with section 139 of the labour Act 2003, Act 651.”

It further stated that as a result of the COVID-19 protocols, the GCNet Staff Welfare Association should select three representatives to represent them.

“In view of the COVID-19 protocols, the representation to the hearing by each side is restricted to maximum of three (3) persons and this must be noted. The workers are therefore to select three (3) persons to represent them at the hearing.”

The GCNet Association commenced the strike action on Monday, October 5, 2020, to make clear their demands for the immediate payment of “redundancy packages to redundant staff in accordance with the Arbitration Award.”

In a statement issued by the Association, Welfare Chairman, Felix Agbodeka, stated that the sit down strike is in accordance with section 159 of the Labour Act, 2003 (Act 651).

“The GCNet Staff Welfare Association has resolved to commence a series of industrial actions against GCNet Management. This is to press home our demands for the immediate payment of redundancy package to redundant staff in accordance with the Arbitration Award. From today Thursday 24th September 2020, and until further notice, workers of GCNet shall be on a lawful and legal sit down strike in accordance with section 159 of the Labour Act, 2003 (Act 651)”.

The management of Ghana Community Network Service Limited (GCNet) consequently filed a motion at the Labour Division of the Accra High Court, challenging the enforcement of an arbitration award over the terms of a redundancy compensation payment to its workers.

The company sought the intervention of the High Court to set aside the award which directed the management to pay a redundancy package of 30 per cent of salary and other allowances including rent, transport, fuel, car maintenance, and education grant subsidies.

A three-member arbitration panel appointed by the National Labour Commission (NLC), last month ruled that all the workers affected by company’s ongoing redundancy exercise, be paid in accordance with provisions made in the firm’s Human Resource Policy Manual, signed between the GCNet management and the GCNet Staff Welfare Association in 2018.

But the management wants the award set aside because the HR policy Manual was developed for administrative convenience and does not constitute a Collective Agreement between the management and GCNeT Staff Welfare Association, in addition to the fact that workers are not unionised and the association is unregistered.

The affidavit, filed at the Labour Division of the High Court on Monday October 5, also affirms that the association  “lacked  capacity going  into the  arbitration  and  that  incapacity and illegality  renders the   resultant  award  null and  void and should  be  set aside  by the  court pursuant  to  section 58 of the  ADR  Act 2010 (Act 798).”