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The Amasaman High Court has shot down applications filed by Asanko Gold Ghana Limited against members of Ghana Mine Workers Union (GMWU) who were sacked without proper compensation.
Asanko Gold Ghana Limited, the defendants, had sought the court to strike out the case, which according to them was premature.
The mining firm also sought the court to forbid the Union to represent the affected workers.
The Ghana Mine Workers Union then filed an affidavit to object to those applications.
The two entities are in court over non-adherence to the collective bargaining agreement relating to payment of severance to the Union’s members.
According to the mine workers, their conditions of service agreed upon have not been adhered to by the Asanko Gold board, especially, when it comes to the compensation for severance.
The workers claim that Asanko Gold Mine has terminated the permanent employment of 299 staff and has reduced their salaries and made their conditions worse off without payment of severance to affected workers as agreed in the collective bargaining agreement (CBA).
The GMWU lamented that after several meetings with management of Asanko Gold Ghana, they still did not see any changes on the need for the company to pay appropriate severance as agreed, hence their decision to resort to the courts.
In an earlier sitting, counsel for the GMWU further disclosed that Asanko Gold Ghana wanted the case struck out because, according to them, the case was premature.
Meanwhile, the court in its sitting on Friday, July 8 rejected the applications, indicating that the Ghana Mine Workers Union is a registered company and has the capacity to be in court on behalf of the affected workers.
The High Court also quashed the application which claimed that the affected workers were duly paid.
The Court in its ruling reiterated that the case is still pending and thus the affected workers can go ahead and pursue the case to seek redress.
The court thus ordered Ghana Mine Workers Union to go back and ensure proper service or the affidavit is served to the company instead of serving one Stella, who is supposed to be the Secretary of the Managing Director.
Counsel for Ghana Mine Workers Union Lawyer Twumasi Nayyar, addressing the media after the court proceedings, explained that “once this hurdle is settled, the GMWU will heed to the court order to properly serve Asanko Mine as an entity to ensure the final ruling is issued in the next hearing”.
Next court hearing is dated two weeks from the last sitting.
Source: 3news.com|Ghana
