Editorial: Dismissal Of Workers – Class Action Is The Answer But…

Member of Parliament for Old Tafo, Ekow Vincent Assafuah, according to a recent report carried by citinewsroom.com, has announced plans to take legal action against what he describes as politically motivated dismissals of young Ghanaian workers by the government.

According to the young MP, instead of delivering on employment opportunities for the youth, the government has rather prioritised political appointments and restructuring within state institutions, leading to layoffs of competent workers. He accused the administration of using political victimisation as a tool to replace professionals with partisan loyalists, an action he vowed to resist.

“It is deeply unfortunate and unacceptable that young people, duly recruited by a properly constituted Ghanaian government, are now being dismissed without just cause. This is nothing but political victimisation and I refuse to stand by and watch it happen,” he was quoted as saying.

The MP pledged to challenge the dismissals in court, arguing that such actions violate Ghana’s 1992 Constitution, which frowns upon the arbitrary termination of public service employees without just cause.

“Our 1992 Constitution abhors the arbitrary exercise of power in a capricious fashion. The Constitution further frowns upon the removal, dismissal or termination of the employment of persons belonging to the public services without just cause. Even in private spheres, we are guided by the principles of fair hearing,” he was again quoted as saying.

It is important to note that President John Dramani Mahama on Tuesday, February 11, 2025 directed that all appointments made by former President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo after December 7,2024 be revoked. This is obviously a fulfilment of the campaign promise the leadership of the then opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) made to sack all workers who were being employed after the December 7 elections.

It is also important to stress that when the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government assumed office in January 2017, most if not all workers employed after the 2016 general elections were sacked from their work places. The reason for these actions by both NPP and NDC is that the affected employees are perceived as belonging to either of the parties, depending on who is in power.

Today,Ekow Vincent Assafuah is threatening legal action against the conduct of the Mahama government, but he did not see anything wrong when Nana Akufo-Addo took similar action in 2017 against fellow Ghanaians. In the same way, followers of NDC are today clapping for President Mahama for what he has done, but will start crying wolf when they leave office and the next government takes similar actions against workers they have also employed. Call it hypocrisy of the highest order and you will not be far from truth.

But how do we, as a nation, cure this mischief – the answer, we dare say, lies in court action which Vincent Assafuah is threatening to take. In our opinion, the courts must be invited to make a pronouncement on the vexed issue that is threatening to divide the country. If the Old Tafo MP succeeds with his action in court, current and future governments will be duty bound to respect the decision.

However, if it is a mere political statement that he is making without the corresponding action in court, then The Chronicle encourages all those who have been affected by the latest action of the government to take a class action against the state. Their success will discourage all future governments from taking some of these unpopular decisions.

In case they fail to convince the courts too, a clear warning would have been given to all future outgoing governments to desist from employing people after they have lost the elections. But having stated our position, we must also look at the other side of the coin. If the expected class action by the dismissed workers succeeds in court, it is also going to create another big problem for the country.

All future outgoing governments will embark on unreasonable employment of workers just to overburden the incoming government. So whilst encouraging the class action, we are also pleading with stakeholders to look at the issue we have raised and decide whether to come out with a law that will address this anticipated conduct of outgoing governments.

We rest our case.

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