The National Labour Commission (NLC), has filed a lawsuit seeking an order to compel workers of the Judicial Service to call off their strike.
The Judicial Service Staff Association of Ghana (JUSSAG) announced a strike last week over government’s failure to approve their reviewed salaries and allowances despite an agreement to that effect.
[contextly_sidebar id=”iy1CrFSnrxeEFHRNKzgOTBnY5myn6l1y”]The Association has already defied an order from NLC to call off the strike.
But the NLC insists that JUSSAG’s strike is illegal and it will go through the processes to force the judicial workers “to resume work immediately.”
However, it is unclear how the commission filed their case because Judicial Service workers are still on strike.
The new Executive Secretary of the NLC, Charles Adongo Bawa Duah, told Citi News that they filed the case on Tuesday morning and the court is expected to hear the matter on May 31, 2016.
Mr. Duah said, as a body mandated to solve disputes between workers and employers, the commission last Wednesday heard the case between the parties involved.
“…And after hearing them, we directed that the strike that they were going to undertake was illegal.”
He justified the commission’s position saying that “…they [JUSSAG] did not meet the requirement of law which required them to have notified the National Labour Commission seven days to the strike action. We also noted that the parties were still at the negotiation table and as the law provides, it is not legally right for parties who are negotiating to embark on a strike.”
“Consequently, we directed the parties to go back to the negotiation table and report on June 8, to the National Labour Commission. The next day we heard that JUSSAG had embarked on strike. On the provisions of the law under which the commission operates, we have to apply to a court to enforce the directive that we have made. So we went to court this morning [Tuesday], to file a motion to have our directive enforced to compel JUSSAG workers to return to work,” he added.
Gov’t to meet Judicial Council
In a related development, the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations, is scheduled to meet with the Judicial Council today [Tuesday], in a bid to get the striking workers back to work.
Despite the ongoing strike, the Supreme Court today [Tuesday], sat on two cases.
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By: Godwin A. Allotey/citifmonoline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin