Ghana: Court dismisses Guinness’ application against Labour C’sion … over its ruling against Guinness

An Accra Fast Track High Court has dismissed Guinness Ghana Limited’s application asking the court to quash an award by the National Labour Commission in favour of the company’s former secretary, Mr. Joe Aboagye Debrah, who was refused gratuity as part of a redundancy package, Ghanaian Chronicle Online informed on April 11.

The court, presided over by Ms. Justice Irishmay Brown, ordered the company to comply with the orders of the commission.

Ghana Breweries went to court following an order by the National Labour Commission (NLC) that the company should pay Mr. Debrah gratuity as part of the redundancy package negotiated and agreed upon on June 9, 2005 because that agreement “holds sway” over any existing agreement.

Mr. Debrah had earlier petitioned the commission against the company’s refusal to pay Mr. Deborah gratuity in line with the June 9 agreement on the grounds that he had not served for more than five years to qualify for gratuity as contained in their staff manual.

In her ruling, Justice Irishmay Brown said there was nothing in the June 9 agreement to indicate that only those who had served for more than five years were to benefit from the package. She said the contention by Ghana Breweries Limited that the staff manual and agreement on the redundancy package related to the same transaction and must be read together as untenable.

“They were produced for different purposes: the manual was to regulate continuing employment of all employees till eventual termination; the agreement was negotiated for a specific purpose and on behalf of just a few individuals – that is a class of redundant workers,” she explained.

Ms. Justice Brown said the conflicting terms of the two documents could not be applied together for that is contrary to the Labour Act 651 Section 19 and 105(4).

Section 105(4) states: “The rights conferred on a worker by a collective agreement shall not be waived by the worker, and if there is any conflict between the terms of a collective agreement and the terms of any contract not contained in the collective agreement, the collective shall prevail unless the terms of the contract are more favourable to the worker.

The judge said the June 9 agreement applied to a class of persons. The applicant (Ghana Breweries) cannot impose any discrimination on the beneficiaries of the agreement so that the fact that Mr. Debrah had served less than five years is irrelevant to his right under an agreement to which he is a party.

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