The Industrial and Labour court has rejected\u00a0the Bank of Ghana’s (BoG) attempt to be second defendants in a case\u00a0between\u00a0twelve labour unions \u00a0and government over the management of their pensions funds.<\/p>\n
[contextly_sidebar id=”62QJdWvLt5nQGeLGCxzwrMgQ5dmr9xOR”]According to the ruling by Justice Kwaku Gyan, allowing the BoG as a defendant in\u00a0 the case will constitute an “abuse of the court.”<\/p>\n
He further indicated that the laws governing the pension funds\u00a0 do not give the BoG\u00a0 any \u00a0mandate to manage the funds deposited with them.<\/p>\n
The labour unions filed a counter-claim against the Bank of Ghana over the second-tier pensions after government dragged the 12 members to court over their intended industrial action last year.<\/p>\n
In their counter-claim, the labour unions prayed the court to enjoin the Bank of Ghana to disclose the exact amount in its custody.<\/p>\n
However, counsel for the Bank Samuel Codjoe told the court that the National Pensions Act does not give it the power to access and invest the funds.<\/p>\n
Mr. Cudjoe told the court it is only the National Pensions Regulatory Authority (NPRA) that has the power to access and invest the funds, praying the court to direct the labour unions to find answer to the exact amount accrued from NPRA.<\/p>\n
Labour Union\/ gov’t brouhaha<\/strong><\/p>\n On Wednesday,22 October, 2014 various labour unions embarked on an indefinite strike<\/a><\/strong><\/span> to protest the delay in the release of their tier two pensions into a private account.<\/p>\n They were also challenging\u00a0the Ministry of Finance\u2019s decision to use Pension Alliance Trust<\/strong><\/a><\/span> as a sole trustee of the second tier pension schemes for all employees on government payroll.<\/p>\n Though the Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, Haruna Iddrisu earlier kicked against the decision<\/strong><\/a> <\/span>by labour unions to strike, describing it as unnecessary and unlawful, the strike was\u00a0fully implemented by some labour groups.<\/p>\n