Vodafone Violates CHRAJ�s Orders

Vodafone has blatantly refused to pay compensation to Mr. Paul Atiim, a senior technician who was dismissed four years ago. Mr. Atiim has also been denied his contributions h made into the workers� provident fund. Vodafone alleged that Mr. Atiim, who was stationed at its Bolgatanga offices diverted two payphone lines to other customers for which reason he was summarily dismissed. The former technician however said he did not know that the telephone lines in question were already allocated since at the time he started work at the Bolga office, no handing over notes were given to him. Though Vodafone claimed in a letter on November 16, 2005 that Mr. Atiim was summarily dismissed, the former worker insisted that the correspondence reached him on 28th December, 2005. for his insistence on the 28th December date, Mr. Atiim wrote an appeal against management�s decision. Mrs Stella Appiah-Nkasah, Human Resource manager at then Ghana Telecom replied as follows; �We wish to inform you that your petition which was dated 5th January, 2006 has elapsed the 15 days period required to file an appeal. This is in accordance with Article 31(iii) of the Collective Bargaining Agreement 2004/2005. �Therefore, the Board of Appeal is unable to consider your petition�. The intervention by the Commission on human rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) last year made Vodafone eat humble pie by ordering its Board of Appeal to look into Mr. Atiim�s fresh petition. The decision to summarily dismiss the former technician was upheld by the Board of Appeal Vodafone constituted. Mr. Joseph Whittal, Upper East Regional Director of CHRAJ in reaction to a letter from Vodafone concerning when the latter handed the dismissal letter to the former employee remarked: �That the letter did not address the specific issues raised, but rather lamely said among others, that �we wish to inform you that information reaching us from our Bolgatanga offices indicates that Mr. Atiim received the dismissal letter on 30th November at about 1:30pm.� In the midst of the uncertainty that hangs around the case of Mr. Atiim, the former employee says the inability to redeem his severance package as well as contributions he made for more than seven years into his provident fund account as has had a telling effect on him. �I am a married man who is committed to serve in the company and the effect of this sanction (dismissal) will have a very telling effect on me, my children�s education and my future,� Mr. Atiim lamented in a letter to his employers on 5th January, 2006. Mr. Atiim was employed by the then Post and Telecommunication Corporation on 1st June, 1981 and posted to Tamale as Assistant Auditor. He worked in that capacity till 1986 when he was transferred to Bolgatanga. Because of Atiim�s dedication and loyalty to the success of company goals and objectives, he got the opportunity to offer courses, thus converting him to a technician. He was in June 2003 transferred to Navrongo to assume the duty of Senior Technical Officer. Throughout his 24 years of working for Ghana Telecom, Mr. Atiim has never engaged in any fraudulent deals or caused loss or damage to company properties. It is still unclear why his employers decided to apply the extreme penalty (-dismissal) when the collective bargaining agreement also provides for demotion as punishment for such an offence.