{"id":402838,"date":"2018-02-20T11:50:04","date_gmt":"2018-02-20T11:50:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=402838"},"modified":"2018-02-20T11:50:04","modified_gmt":"2018-02-20T11:50:04","slug":"court-to-rule-on-fate-of-laid-off-goldfields-staff-march-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2018\/02\/court-to-rule-on-fate-of-laid-off-goldfields-staff-march-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Court to rule on fate of laid-off Goldfields staff March 2"},"content":{"rendered":"
An Accra High court has set March 2 as the date it will deliver its ruling on the fate of some 1,700 workers of Goldfields Ghana who have been laid off by the company.<\/p>\n
The judge, Laurenda Owusu, said she will rely on the relevant provisions in civil procedure rules, CI 47 and all the processes filed to deliver its ruling on the set date.<\/p>\n
[contextly_sidebar id=”TTYO4Smdyd3ehMjOaB96uNfx3YMPbaiD”]The suit before the court was initiated on behalf of the workers by the Ghana Mine Workers Union (GMWU).<\/p>\n
In the writ, the workers are praying the court to restrain Goldfields from going ahead with the intended redundancy exercise until all the stakeholders involved reach a consensus.<\/p>\n
They are also seeking a declaration from the court that the redundancy exercise is \u201cunlawful\u201d because the reasons given by the mining giant to lay them off do not meet the \u201crequirements, conditions or grounds for redundancy, as provided by Section 65 of the Labour Act, 2013, Act 651\u2019\u2019.<\/p>\n
The workers further want the court to declare that the purported authorisation of the redundancy exercise by the Chief Labour Officer is \u201cillegal, unlawful and null and void\u2019\u2019.<\/p>\n
Background<\/strong><\/p>\n In December 2017, Goldfields Ghana Limited revealed it was going to lay off about 1,500 workers as part of measures to change its business model\u00a0and make the company profitable due to the relatively short lifespan of the mine.<\/p>\n