No Show @ Labour Trial

THE INDUSTRIAL and Labour Court in Accra presided over by Justice Saeed Kwaku Gyan has adjourned the hearing of the twelve labour unions to Monday, January 26. The parties appeared in court for the first after the court had upheld an injunction filed to it by the attorney general them from embarking on any form of strike action, and yesterday's adjournment was as a result of a motion filed by Bank of Ghana to set aside a counter claim filed against the Labour unions. When the case was called, representatives of the BoG were not in court, however, the court records show that the Bank of Ghana was not served with hearing notice. The presiding Judge however agreed on January 26 and ordered the court registrar to serve the BoG with hearing notice before the next adjourned date Speaking to the DAILY HERITAGE after court sitting, lead counsel of the defendants, Akoto Ampaw explained that there were, "two applications pending before the court, one was an application for direction by the Attorney General, and also by us for further directions." The second he said, "Was an application to have our counter claim against the Bank of Ghana struck out for showing no reasonable cause of action or as an abuse of court process. "...So, because the application to have their counter in strike out and the application for direction are all pending, the judge decided that, he needed to deal with that application to have the writ struck out, against the Bank of Ghana first, before addressing the application for direction. "Unfortunately, when the hearing notice was served for today, they, (court) failed to serve the Bank of Ghana's lawyer who would have come here to move the application to have the writs struck out. So because of that, nothing could be done, because they haven't been served so they don't know that the case was coming on today. The adjournment was to ensure that the defendant with the counter claim that is BoG is served with the hearing notice for Monday's application. Asked if he suspects any foul play he replied, "There could not be any question of foul play. It doesn't arise at all. It is just a problem of faulty, delay in serving court processes. "The bank of Ghana will move his application to have the writs and statement of claims and the pleading against the bank of Ghana struck out as in their view showing no reasonable cause of action and also as an abuse of court process and we will respond to that and the court will make the ruling."