[2008]DLCA6773 • July 31, 2008 • Court of Appeal
WILLIAM G.K. THOMPSON vs. TOTAL GHANA LIMITED
The plaintiff/respondent, William G.K. Thompson, claimed to have been employed by the defendant/appellant, Total Ghana Limited, for sixteen years. The dispute arose from a suspension letter dated 1 November 2005, suspending the plaintiff with half pay pending police investigations into alleged losses at the East Legon Total Filling Station, where the plaintiff was implicated. The plaintiff contended that he was not charged or found culpable by the police, was not given a hearing before suspension, and that the suspension was wrongful and contrary to principles of fair trial. The defendant justified the suspension as necessary pending police investigations and denied the applicability of the Collective Bargaining Agreement to the plaintiff, a senior management staff.
read moreQUAYE, JA The plaintiff/respondent herein claimed in his evidence in the trial court that he was employed by, and remained in the service of the defendants/appellants for sixteen years. This allegation of fact did not raise an issue in the eyes of the appellants. No issue was therefore joined on this allegation. It stands out however that neither in his writ of summons, the statement of claim, nor in his evidence before the court below, did the respondent give any indication as to when exactly his relationship with the appellants as employee started. The relevant issues pertaining to this appeal dated from a correspondence under confidential cover, bearing the date of 18th November 2004, by which the appellants appointed the respondent as Retail Network Development Manager. That appointment was to take effect from 1st January 2005. (refer to exhibit A). The employer-employee relationship between the appellants and the respondent continued, presumably, satisfactorily, until the appe...