CHRISTIAN ASARE-DJAN vs TEACHERS’ FUND

INTRODUCTION

The plaintiff was an employee of the defendant, an entity registered under the laws of Ghana as a company limited by guarantee.

The plaintiff worked with the defendant from the 2nd of February, 2009 till the 19th of May 2021 when his employment contract was terminated by the defendant.

The termination letter served on the plaintiff offered no reason for the termination of the plaintiff’s contract of employment but the plaintiff was informed that he was to be paid a month’s salary in lieu of notice for the termination and he was also to be paid any outstanding leave entitlement in cash.

The termination letter also requested the plaintiff to settle all his indebtedness to the defendant and to also prepare his handing over notes and submit same to the General Manager of the defendant by the 21st of May, 2021. He was also directed to return all properties of the defendant which were in his custody to the defendant’s Head of HR/Administration by the same 21st May, 2021. The plaintiff, who at the time was the head of operations of the defendant company, was obviously not enthused by this turn of affairs and he, being of the view that the defendant had terminated his contract in violation of the terms of the said contract of employment, sued the defendant for the following reliefs: -a) A declaration that the defendant’s termination of the plaintiff’s employment was in violation of the terms of the employment contract as same was unfair, very wrongful and thereby unlawful b) An order for the formal removal of the purported termination letter from the plaintiff’s records with the defendant.

c)Payment of discharge or redundancy compensation package assessed at the sum of the plaintiff’s six(6) months’ salary and allowances for each year that he has been in the employment of the defendant, the benchmark monthly salary and allowances that the plaintiff would have earned on the date of this writ.

d)Payment of all the entitlements that are or would have been due to the plaintiff under the employment contract but for the defendant’s unfair, wrongful or unlawful termination.

e)Reimbursement of the penalty which as a result of the defendant’s unfair, wrongful or unlawful termination, the plaintiff paid for the abortive liquidation of his provident funds, such penalty amounting to the sum of forty-one thousand, four hundred and ten Ghana Cedis and sixty-six pesewas only (GH¢41, 410. 66) and with interest. f)Damages for breach of the plaintiff’s employmen