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The National Labor Commission (NLC) has rejected a request presented by SGS / GCNet and its Labor Consultant, Mr. Austin Gamey to review the Arbitration Award of September 4, 2020 in the sense that redundant personnel have the right and should receive what the company’s HR Policy on Layoffs has clearly stated.
In a reply letter, the NLC notes’The Commission wants to warn that it has no power under the Law to review an Arbitration Award‘.
The NLC cites Section 158 (1) of the Labor Law of 2003 (Law 651) which states that ‘The decision of the Arbitrator or the majority of the Arbitrators will constitute the Award and will be binding on all parties..
The letter reminded the petitioner that section 58 of the ADR Law of 2010 (Law 798) clearly details the grounds and the procedure to annul an Arbitration Award.
By rejecting the request for review, the letter firmly concluded “the Commission cannot agree to your request ‘.
The dismissal of the petition by the NLC follows attempts by SGS / GCNet and its Labor Advisor, Mr. Gamey, to turn the corner due to blatant abuse of the administrative process and outright disregard for the Labor Law. Labor and the Constitution.
This past week has been the focus of attention on SGS / GCNet refusing to comply with the Arbitration Award of September 4, 2020 that sparked a sit-down strike.
Labor analysts caution that SGS / GCNet must do what is necessary to avoid further embarrassment on this fruitless journey to overturn NLC’s decision and be firm in setting aside any reckless advice to delay severance pay – actions that will cost them more.
The President of the Staff Welfare Association, Mr. Felix Agbodeka, has stated that affected staff are READY and DETERMINED to claim what they CORRECTLY owe each affected employee.
He warned that what is happening is undermining the morale of the current staff, who will also be fired in April 2020 and is concerned that they will be subjected to this inhuman treatment and injustice.
It will be recalled that sometime on April 29, 2020, the government notified in a letter its decision to terminate the GCNet TradeNet contract and the transit service as of May 31, 2020.
Following the Government’s action, GCNet Management also notified affected personnel on May 29, 2020 to carry out a layoff exercise. The notice for affected personnel was effective as of June 1, 2020, and the last day of employment for affected personnel was June 30, 2020. Severance payments were to be made on or before that date.
By June 30, 2020, the Executive Directorate refused to abide by the terms of the disengagement that culminated in a series of discussions between the Welfare Association representing the staff and the Executive Directorate representing SGS / GCNet.
After a deadlock in the discussions, the matter was jointly referred to the National Labor Commission (NLC) on August 11, 2020, by the parties involved, which ended in arbitration for resolution. An arbitration panel was selected jointly by the parties and the NLC. The parties selected one arbitrator each from the list of arbitrators and the NLC selected a chair to serve on the three-member panel.
On September 4, 2020, the Arbitration Panel appointed by the NLC ruled in favor of the affected personnel respecting Article 1901 (f) of the HRPM of the GCNet Human Resources Policy Manual without any variation or adjustment and also ordered that the date validity of the dismissal was August 31. , 2020, which should be considered the last day of employment for each employee, with clear instructions to pay August wages to affected personnel.
Days after the arbitration award, the Executive Management of GCNet / SGS in its continuous demonstration of acting in bad faith towards the staff by violating the agreement and total disregard for the rights of the staff refused to respect the ruling of the Arbitration Panel endorsed by the law (Labor Law and Constitution of Ghana) and rather defiantly approached the National Labor Commission (NLC) to review the arbitration award.
