Court to rule on NLC, NAGRAT case October 31
Gilbert Boyefio
27/10/2006
A Fast Track High Court in Accra will on Tuesday October 31 give its ruling on the case in which the National Labour Commission is praying the court to order members of the National Association of Graduate Teachers to call off the strike they embarked upon on September 1, 2006 and return to the classroom. The NLC has described the strike as "illegal."
However, in court yesterday, counsel for NAGRAT, Archie Martin Danso told the court that the application by the NLC asking the court to order NAGRAT back to the classroom should be nullified because at the time the NLC filed the suit, it had not received any complaints from the employers of NAGRAT, the Ghana Education Service, and therefore acted on its own initiative.
He argued that it is fundamental that a party invest power in a lawyer before that lawyer can go to court, a situation they claimed did not occur in the case of the NLC. "The applicants do not have the course of action and therefore cannot enforce the same", he added.
He further stated that there was no law under the Labour Act that empowers the NLC to take NAGRAT to court without a complaint from their employers.
On the submission by the NLC that NAGRAT had embark on an illegal strike for not complying and exceeding the maximum seven days stipulated under the Labour Act, for an aggrieved party to go on strike, Martin Danso posited that the law did not apply to the NAGRAT issue.
He explained that it was only when there was a dispute between an employer and an employee that the aggrieved party could apply for an order to embark on strike as the Labour Act demands. "A notice is given only when there is a dispute", he argued.
According to him, there was no dispute between NAGRAT and the GES, and described the situation that led to the strike action by NAGRAT as the inability of the GES to honour various agreements made with NAGRAT.
Counsel for the NLC, J Opoku Agyei, however argued that the Labour Law, Act 651, does not require that there be a complaint before the NLC can initiate a court action against a person or group of persons.
He said even if an order was void and null, it cannot be set aside.
The Presiding Judge, Justice Richard Asamoah, deferred his ruling to October 31 to give him time to properly analyse the various submissions by counsel.
27/10/2006
A Fast Track High Court in Accra will on Tuesday October 31 give its ruling on the case in which the National Labour Commission is praying the court to order members of the National Association of Graduate Teachers to call off the strike they embarked upon on September 1, 2006 and return to the classroom. The NLC has described the strike as "illegal."
However, in court yesterday, counsel for NAGRAT, Archie Martin Danso told the court that the application by the NLC asking the court to order NAGRAT back to the classroom should be nullified because at the time the NLC filed the suit, it had not received any complaints from the employers of NAGRAT, the Ghana Education Service, and therefore acted on its own initiative.
He argued that it is fundamental that a party invest power in a lawyer before that lawyer can go to court, a situation they claimed did not occur in the case of the NLC. "The applicants do not have the course of action and therefore cannot enforce the same", he added.
He further stated that there was no law under the Labour Act that empowers the NLC to take NAGRAT to court without a complaint from their employers.
On the submission by the NLC that NAGRAT had embark on an illegal strike for not complying and exceeding the maximum seven days stipulated under the Labour Act, for an aggrieved party to go on strike, Martin Danso posited that the law did not apply to the NAGRAT issue.
He explained that it was only when there was a dispute between an employer and an employee that the aggrieved party could apply for an order to embark on strike as the Labour Act demands. "A notice is given only when there is a dispute", he argued.
According to him, there was no dispute between NAGRAT and the GES, and described the situation that led to the strike action by NAGRAT as the inability of the GES to honour various agreements made with NAGRAT.
Counsel for the NLC, J Opoku Agyei, however argued that the Labour Law, Act 651, does not require that there be a complaint before the NLC can initiate a court action against a person or group of persons.
He said even if an order was void and null, it cannot be set aside.
The Presiding Judge, Justice Richard Asamoah, deferred his ruling to October 31 to give him time to properly analyse the various submissions by counsel.
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