Workers summarily dismissed by Ghana’s second largest telecoms company Vodafone have filed a writ of summons at Accra High Court, saying the company failed to uphold its policies and seeking compensation.
The workers were sacked in 2009 in what was widely described as an unfair retrenchment exercise carried out by the new owners of the former state-owned Ghana Telecom, which had been sold to British telecommunications giant Vodafone in 2008.
Reports indicate the Ghanaian government had sold 70 percent of its state in the former Ghana Telecom at a sum of $900 million.
After gaining strong control over the company, Vodafone then decided to reduce the company’s workforce in a process that the affected workers described as “undue”.
They workers also noted the maltreatment of them by the company as well as the number of unfulfilled promises, all of which had prompted them to seek judiciary intervention.
Speaking on behalf of the group of affected ex-workers, Abdul Majeed Bawa said: “We think that the decision that they [Vodafone] have taken was illegal because they did not follow the due process as laid down by the terms and conditions that they brought when they took over Ghana Telecom in 2009.”
He further stated that the company failed to uphold their own formulated business policy that guides every worker of the company.
“So on that basis we thought that the decision was illegal, ill advised and it is against our fundamental human rights,” he said.
While confirming the litigation, the lead counsel for the ex-Vodafone staff Alfred Agyei Mensah noted that the company terminated the workers’ appointment over what they described as non-performance.
“I think my clients are not satisfied or are displeased with the decision of Vodafone, that is why we are going to court,” Mensah said.
