Business News of Tuesday, 12 January 2021

Source: www.ghanaweb.com

NLC to rule on sacked Coca-Cola staff case January 13

National Labour Commission National Labour Commission

The National Labour Commission (NLC) will on Wednesday, January 13, 2021 rule on the case of the 30 employees of Coca-Cola who were laid off recently, myjoyonline reports.

The ruling will bring to bear whether or not the beverage producing company faulted in making due diligence before carrying out the action.

The General Secretary of Industrial and Commercial Workers Union (ICU), Solomon Kotei in an interaction with the media accused Coca-Cola of dismissing 30 of its employees wrongfully.

According to him, “In our history, this is the first time an employer lays off workers without using due process. The law requires that when a company is going to carry out such an exercise, the number of people to be affected should be known, again, the criteria of selection for those to be laid-off should be set clearly. All these have not been done.”

“And to think that they issued a letter admitting to not following due process, this does not create a safe environment for any worker here. Our mission here is to get management of Coca-Cola to do the right thing,” Mr. Kotei added.

Staff of Coca-Cola Bottling Company Limited in Ghana Monday embarked on a protest at the premises of the company over the dismissal of their colleagues.

Their concern was management did not follow due process in laying off their colleagues.

It would be recalled that last year, the management of Coca-Cola served notice of its intention to lay off workers due to challenges exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

A memo to the staff dated August 31, 2020 noted that the Chief Labour Officer of the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations has already been informed of the company's intention.