Staff of the Ghana Community Network Services Limited (GCNET) have resumed their industrial action.
A statement issued by the Welfare Chairman and his Vice, said the issues that led to the suspension of their action have not been resolved by the National Labour Commission (NLC).
“Following the meeting with the National Labour Commission today Friday October 02 2020, the current impasse remains unresolved,” the statement said.
It further urged the staff to note that “the suspended industrial action has resumed in accordance with section 159 of the Labour Act 2003 (Act 651).
“All support services provided to continue to impress on the Management to immediately settle all redundancy payments in accordance with the Arbitration Award pf September 03, 2020. Take note accordingly.
“After the September 4, 2020, Arbitration Award, GCNet Executive Management / SGS in its continued demonstration of acting in bad faith refused to respect the Award of the Arbitration Panel and approached the National Labour Commission (NLC) to review the Arbitration Award.
“The NLC in a letter dated September 25, 2020, dismissed the request for review citing Section 158 (1) of the Labour Act 2003 (Act 651) which provides that ‘the decision of the Arbitrator or majority of the Arbitrators shall constitute the Award and shall be binding on all parties.”’
The letter continued further that: “The arrow head letter also firmly reminded the Austin Gamey, SGS &GCNet that section 58 of the ADR Act 2010 (Act 798) clearly spells out the grounds and procedure for setting aside an Arbitration Award.
“On June 30, 2020, Executive Management refused to respect the terms of disengagement which culminated in a series of discussions between Welfare Association representing staff and Executive Management representing SGS/ GCNet. Following a deadlock in discussions, the matter was jointly referred to the National Labour Commission (NLC) on August 11, 2020 by parties involved which ended in Arbitration for resolution.”
Also, “an Arbitration Panel was jointly selected by the parties and the NLC. The parties selected one arbitrator each from the list of arbitrators and the NLC selected a Chairman to constitute the three-member panel.”
By Laud Nartey|3news.com|Ghana