An Accra High Court has dismissed an application for interlocutory injunction filed by some 1,001 workers of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), challenging the concession agreement between government and the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC).
The workers filed the application challenging the legality of the handover of the operations of the ECG to a concessionaire through government without any redundancy package for them.
The court, presided over by Justice Lorinda Owusu, dismissed the application on grounds that there was no serious issue to be tried.
The court said on the balance of convenience, the dismissal of the application would not affect the workers of ECG as compared to the damages that may befall the state.
According to her, the compact is already in force and contracts had been signed while conferences had been organised.
“The applicants have not denied that time, money and energy have been wasted, and if the application is granted, severe hardship would befall the state and the concessionaires.”
Counsel for the ECG workers moved the application at the last sitting, praying the court to restrain the defendants from taking over the operations of ECG.
The workers also wanted a declaration that the decision by the Minister of Energy to conduct redundancy negotiations with individual employees of ECG, including the plaintiffs, was illegal and constituted a gross violation of Section 65 of the Labour Act.
The plaintiffs prayed for an order directed at the defendants to comply with the provisions of the Labour Act, go through the proper redundancy process in accordance with Ghana’s laws and pay the plaintiffs redundancy pay (severance package) as stipulated by the law and the collective agreement between the workers and ECG.
The application was however opposed by the lawyers for first respondent, ECG, the second respondent, Government of Ghana and the third respondent MiDA.
The compact, which was signed in August 2014, is geared towards reforming the electricity distribution sector of Ghana by appointing a concessionaire to take over ECG.
The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) will provide Ghana with a grant of $498.2 million to improve the country’s power sector.
By Gibril Abdul Razak