[ 2017-10-24 ]

ECG privatization: Ruling on PUWU suit set for Oct. 31
An Accra High Court has set October 31 to rule on
an injunction application seeking to stop the
government and the Millennium Development
Authority (MIDA), from going ahead with processes
to give the Electricity Company Ghana (ECG) out on
concession.

The court set the date after lawyers for both the
applicants and defendants, argued their case on
why the court should put the process on hold or
otherwise.

Over 1000 workers of ECG, led by the Public
Utilities Workers Union (PUWU), have sued the
government over moves to hand over the operations
of the company to a concessionaire without any
redundancy package for them.

Concerns with the ongoing process were raised by
lawyers for PUWU at the last court hearing on
October 13.
PUWU had started agitations in this regard in
September, expressing fears that their members
will lose their jobs following the Power Compact
signed with the United States of America under the
Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Power
Compact II programme.

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.

This section of the Labour Act indicates that,
where “an arrangement or amalgamation
causes severance of the legal relationship of a
worker and employer as it existed immediately
before the close down, arrangement or
amalgamation; and as a result of and in addition
to the severance that worker becomes unemployed or
suffers any diminution in the terms and conditions
of employment, the worker is entitled to be paid
by the undertaking at which that worker was
immediately employed prior to the close down,
arrangement or amalgamation, compensation, in this
section referred to as redundancy pay.”

In their suit, the workers are also seeking a
perpetual injunction to restrain the defendants,
their assigns and privies from continuing with the
Compact Agreement.
This compact was signed on August 5, 2014, for to
reform the electricity distribution sector of
Ghana by, among other issues, appointing a
concessionaire to take over the distribution of
electricity from ECG and related agreements.

The Ghana Power Compact will provide Ghana with a
grant of US$498,200,000 to improve the performance
of the power sector.

About US$350 million of the grant, is being
invested in ECG to make the country’s power
distributor operationally and financially
efficient.

Source - citifmonline.com

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