Paul Mensah Ziorklyi and 90 Ors v. Ghana Revenue Authority
2016
HIGH COURT
GHANA
CORAM
- HER LADYSHIP PATIENCE MILLS TETTEH (MRS), J
Areas of Law
- Employment Law
- Administrative Law
2016
HIGH COURT
GHANA
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
This case involves 91 former employees of the Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) who were absorbed by the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) during a merger of revenue agencies. The plaintiffs sued GRA for denying them their retirement benefit package known as the Special Welfare Package. The court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, finding that their rights to the retirement benefits had accrued before the merger and that GRA, as the successor organization, was liable for these benefits. The court emphasized that lack of funds does not extinguish the right to accrued benefits and that organizational restructuring should not disadvantage employees in terms of their remuneration. The court ordered GRA to pay the accrued retirement benefits to the plaintiffs, along with additional compensation for the delay in payment.
With the promulgation of Act 791 of 2003 under which GRA took overfrom CEPS, IRS and VAT, 91 workers of CEPS due for retirement just atthe verge of the merger and who were absorbed by GRA were deniedtheir retirement benefit packages also known as Special WelfarePackage, consequently they sued the GRA on the 23/10/14 claimingthe following reliefs; 1. An order for the payment of retirement benefits accrued to them per the attached list of retired staff referred to as schedule 1 indicating each plaintiff’s settlement 2. Interest on the assessed amount from the time of returning of each retired staff till the date of judgment 3. General damages 4. Cost and any other reliefs that the court will deem fit CASE OF THE PLAINTIFFS 91 former employees of the Ghana Revenue Authourity (GRA) retiredfrom GRA after having attained the mandatory retiring age of 60. These 91 employees who are the plaintiffs herein retired at differenttimes from the Ghana Revenue Authority upon its creation on 31stDecember 2009. The defendant is a creature of statute established byGhana Revenue Authourity Act 2009, Act 791 that integrated the then 3tax revenue institutions namely Customs, Excise and Preventive Service(CEPS), Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and Value Added Tax (VAT) forthe holistic collection of revenue and taxes in Ghana.
According to theplaintiffs, the management of Customs, Excise and Preventive Servicefor which plaintiffs were working, put in place a mechanism to enhancethe retirement benefits of staff for the sake of good employmentrelations and ultimate increase in productivity.
The CEPS managementinstituted an enhanced retirement package referred to as the SpecialWelfare Package for the staff prior to the establishment of GRA in 2009. The Special Welfare Package was then initiated and paid in 2008 to staffwho attained the retirement age of 60 years in the year 2009 and 2010. The plaintiffs went on retirement from the Ghana Revenue Authourityand for no reason they were denied the enjoyment of the SpecialWelfare Package that had been paid to staff who retired in 2008. According to the plaintiffs, with the merger of the revenue agenciesnamely CEPS, IRS and VAT to form the Ghana Revenue Authourityunder ACT 791, payment of the Special Welfare Package hasmetamorphosed into a formula whereby the calculation of retiringemployees benefits were based on two weeks’ salary multiplied by thenumber of years the officers served in the organization be it CEPS, IRSor VAT.
The plainti