{"id":361622,"date":"2017-10-13T11:33:16","date_gmt":"2017-10-13T11:33:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=361622"},"modified":"2017-10-13T11:33:16","modified_gmt":"2017-10-13T11:33:16","slug":"puwu-suit-judge-cautions-mida-over-ecg-privatization","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2017\/10\/puwu-suit-judge-cautions-mida-over-ecg-privatization\/","title":{"rendered":"PUWU suit: Judge cautions MiDA over ECG privatization"},"content":{"rendered":"
An Accra High Court has cautioned government and the Millennium Development Authority (MIDA) over the ongoing process to give the Electricity Company Ghana (ECG) out on concession.<\/p>\n
This follows concerns raised in court by lawyers for PUWU, over the ongoing bidding processes despite an interlocutory injunction application before the court,\u00a0praying the court to halt the process.<\/p>\n
[contextly_sidebar id=”HlwSxIxTKDEGFS82mNJVQABuP0t3KCGs”]The plaintiffs, who are members of the Public Utilities Workers Union (PUWU),\u00a0filed the suit demanding, among other things, an\u00a0injunction to halt the Compact between Ghana and the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC).<\/p>\n
The Judge, Justice Lorrenda Owusu, after hearing the concerns of the applicants, advised the government to take note of the effects of their actions with the interlocutory injunction application still pending.<\/p>\n
PUWU sued the government over moves to hand over the operations of the company to a concessionaire without any redundancy package for them.<\/p>\n
In their suit, they are seeking a perpetual injunction to restrain the defendants, their assigns and privies from continuing with the Compact Agreement between the government of Ghana and the MCC.<\/p>\n
The compact was signed in August 2014, geared towards the reform of the electricity distribution sector of Ghana, by among other issues, appointing a concessionaire to take over the distribution of electricity from the ECG and related agreements.<\/p>\n
The Ghana Power Compact will provide Ghana with a grant of US$498,200,000 to improve the performance of the power sector.<\/p>\n
Severance concerns<\/strong><\/p>\n The ECG workers prayed the court, to among others,\u00a0declare the decision by the Minister of Energy to conduct redundancy negotiations with individual employees of the ECG illegal, and a gross violation of Section 65 of the Labour Act, 2005 (Act 651).<\/p>\n They contended that, discussions that went into negotiations for the sale of ECG, did not factor the declaration of redundancy, despite the content of Section 65 of the Labour Act.<\/p>\n