GNAT ordered to reinstate Deputy General Secretary
The Labour Division of the Accra High Court has ordered the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) to reinstate its Deputy General Secretary, Mr Kwadwo Awotwe Nkansah, until the final determination of a suit challenging his retirement from the association.
Advertisement
The court, presided over by Ms Justice Laurenda Owusu, yesterday granted an application by Mr Nkansah for an interlocutory injunction restraining GNAT from retiring him until his suit was determined by the court.
In its ruling, the court held that the applicant stood to suffer greater harm if the application was not granted.
“The respondent is hereby restrained from effecting the applicant’s compulsory retirement from active service pending the final determination of this matter,’’ it held.
Undertaking
The court, however, ordered Mr Nkansah to sign an undertaking which would bound him to pay any damages GNAT would incur as a result of his reinstatement in the event that he lost the substantive case.
It also gave his legal team seven days to respond to an amended statement of defence filed by the legal team of GNAT and fixed June 8, 2016 as the date for the commencement of the case.
Background
Mr Nkansah, who is the Deputy General Secretary of GNAT in charge of Administration and Labour Relations, took the association to court in February this year, claiming that GNAT was forcing him to proceed on retirement, although his retirement was not due.
According to his writ, the association, in a letter dated January 11, 2016, notified him of his retirement on March 26, 2016, although his retirement was supposed to take effect on December 20, 2018.
Other Trending Stories
He contended that in his previous documentations with the association, his date of birth was, indeed, listed as March 26, 1956, but he had, in accordance with all the laid down procedures, effected a change in his date of birth from March 26, 1956 to December 20, 1958, “which change has since 1998 been known to the defendant (GNAT)”.
“Indeed, the defendant has been furnished, through official correspondence, with documents attesting to the change in the date of birth from March 26, 1956 to December 20, 1958 and, although the defendant is in receipt of these documents, it has failed to effect the change, which would put the retirement date at December 20, 2018,’’ he asserted.
Statement of claim
Mr Nkansah is, therefore, asking the court to declare the notification by GNAT for him to retire from active service on March 26, 2016 as null and void and of no legal effect.
He also wants the court to order GNAT to take the necessary steps to change his retirement date from March 26, 2016 to December 20, 2018.
Defence
In its defence, GNAT claimed that Mr Nkansah was seeking to avoid his compulsory retirement on the due date of March 26, 2016 and that his purported change of date of birth was fraudulent.
It claimed that most of the plaintiff’s official documents had March 26, 1956 as his date of birth.
“These include his passport, social security records and his admission letter from the University of Leicester for graduate studies,” it asserted.
Bad blood
This is not the first time Mr Nkansah and GNAT has been at loggerheads with each other.
In the January 12, 2016 edition of The Finder newspaper, he was quoted to have made several allegations of corruption against GNAT.
“There was gross mismanagement and corruption at the top echelon of the association and a deliberate attempt by former officials, aided by current officials, to cover up alleged corrupt practices in the labour union,” he alleged.
The association, at a press conference held on January 14, 2016, however, refuted the allegations, describing them as “a ploy meant to tarnish the reputation of the association”.