L'AIR LIQUIDE GHANA LTD v. ANIN AND OTHERS
1990
COURT OF APPEAL
GHANA
CORAM
- AMPIAH
- ESSIEM
- OFORI-BOATENG JJA
Areas of Law
- Employment Law
- Civil Procedure
1990
COURT OF APPEAL
GHANA
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
L'Air Liquide Ghana Ltd dismissed the respondents for allegedly stealing carbide, but the respondents contested the dismissal. The inquiry was found to violate natural justice principles, leading the court to dismiss the appellants' appeal and uphold the respondents' claims of unlawful dismissal. The court emphasized the necessity of fair procedures in disciplinary actions.
JUDGMENT OF OFORI-BOATENG JA.
This is an appeal from the Circuit Court, Accra presided over by her Honour Judge Baabu. The case of the defendant-appellants, L'Air Liquide Ghana Ltd (hereinafter referred to as the appellants), was that they rightly dismissed summarily the plaintiff-respondents (hereinafter referred to as the respondents) on 17 September 1985 for stealing carbide, the property of the company. That the dismissal was in accordance with article 24 of the collective agreement.
[p.462]
The judgment against them must therefore be set aside. According to the undisputed facts of the case, some three boys were caught with three pieces of carbide. These boys identified the three respondents as the persons who sold them the items; and on the orders of the appellants, they were taken to the police station and kept overnight.
The next day the respondents were discharged. No charges were preferred against them and the appellants were advised to take a departmental action rather than a criminal action through the courts.
Unless the police was being extremely facetious, a police officer to whom an offence had been reported would investigate it, and if he found that an offence, particularly a felony such as stealing, had been committed he would charge the offender. If he failed to do so, it would simply mean that after the investigation he did not find sufficient facts to support any such charge.
The only conclusion I can therefore arrive at from the fact that the respondents were not even asked to make a statement and were asked to go home after the police had interrogated those three boys, was that the police found nothing against them after the investigation. Indeed according to the police officer investigating the case, the three boys in this case could not at the police station identify the respondents as the persons who sold them the carbide.
Under the employment laws of this country however, the dismissal of an employee does not necessarily have to depend on the conviction of the employee by a court of law for a crime. A properly conducted disciplinary inquiry which concludes that an employee has committed a criminal offence although he has been acquitted by a court of law can still sustain a dismissal depending on the terms of the employment. It is accordingly within the power of the appellants in accordance with exhibit B to conduct a disciplinary inquiry into the alleged conduct of the respondents and, if found guilty, to dismiss them summ