Dismissed workers drag Vodafone Ghana to court

Vodafone Ghana, the second largest telecom operator in the country has been dragged to an Accra High Court by some dismissed workers of the company.

Vodafone Ghana, formerly Ghana Telecom, a state-owned telecom was sold in 2008 at paltry sum of $900million to Vodafone Plc, a British telecom giant. The sale of Ghana Telecom to Vodafone group generated hue and cry in the West African country, but the then government stuck to its guns.

After the transaction closed, Vodafone had a 70% stake in the company, while the Ghanaian government holds a 30% stake.

On 16 April, 2009, the company was rebranded as Vodafone Ghana, where some Ghanaian workers lost their jobs in an unfair retrenchment programme introduced by the new owners of the telecom firm.

Unsatisfied with these and other maltreatment, some of the dismissed workers of the network operator, therefore, dragged the company to the court. They filed a writ of summons at the Accra High Court over their termination of their appointments, as well as unfulfilled promises.
The affected workers said Vodafone did not follow laid down process, hence their decision to seek legal redress.

The spokesperson for the group, Abdul Majeed Bawa explained to Citi FM, an Accra-based radio station that “we think that the decision that they 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.

They did not also follow the business policy which they themselves have formulated which makes it binding on every employee of Vodafone, so on that basis we thought that the decision was illegal, ill advised and it is against our fundamental human rights.”

“Under the terms and conditions that they themselves proposed, which they gave to every employee when they took over, they stated categorically that under its order regulation, they said where this document is silent, a guidance stated in Vodafone Ghana policy statement shall apply.”

The group’s lead Counsel, Alfred Agyei Mensah confirmed the suit saying, “I have been consulted by a group of workers whose appointment with Vodafone has been terminated for non performance and I think my clients are not satisfied or are displeased with the decision of Vodafone that is why we are going to court.”

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