[2005]DLSC964 • April 20, 2005 • Supreme Court •
ADOFO AND OTHERS vs. ATTORNEY-GENERAL AND ANOTHER
The plaintiffs, former employees of the Ghana Cocoa Board (Cocobod), were declared redundant and retrenched in 1994 without payment of terminal benefits. They challenged the constitutionality of PNDCL 125, which empowered Cocobod to terminate employment and indemnified it from liability for retirement benefits, alleging it discriminated against certain workers and ousted court jurisdiction.
read moreDelivered the judgment of the Supreme Court. This is the unanimous judgment of the court. The plaintiffs issued a writ on 2 March 2004 seeking an enforcement of the Constitution, 1992 by: “(1) A declaration that by the proper interpretation of article 36(1) and (2) of the Constitution, 1992, PNDCL 125 ceased to exist or to have any effect upon the coming into effect of the Constitution, 1992 of the Republic of Ghana. (2) A declaration that the said PNDCL 125 is inconsistent with the provision of the Constitution, 1992 in so far as it tends to discriminate against certain categories of workers in Ghana and within the Cocobod. (3) A declaration that the said PNDCL 125 is unconscionable and must be removed from the statute books of Ghana.” The writ was expressed to be issued by three plaintiffs, namely Ernest Adofo, Paul K Sekley and Samuel Ntiful “for themselves and on behalf of 70 other workers of the Cocobod retrenched in September 1994.” In the accompanying stateme...