Fire Service flouts High Court order, refuses to reinstate sacked female fire officers
The hope of two female officers sacked by Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) for getting pregnant while on probation to be reinstated has been dashed, five months after an Accra High Court has ordered so.
An order for the GNFS to pay GHC 100,000 in compensation to the affected officers has also been defied by them.
Grace Fosu and Thelma Hammond were dismissed from the Fire Service in 2014 after the Service discovered they were pregnant within the first three years of joining the service.
The GNFS claimed the ladies had contravened Regulation 33 clause six of the GNFS Conditions of Service of the GNFS.
“A female employee shall not be dismissed on the ground that she is pregnant provided she has served the first three years,” the regulation stipulates.
However, the court ordered the Fire Service to reinstate the two and compensate them with GH¢50,000 each in April.
But speaking exclusively to Adomonline.com, some GNFS who say they stand by their colleagues said almost five months after the High Court’s order, their colleagues are yet to be reinstated, let alone, compensated as directed by the court.
The officers who spoke on condition of anonymity say they are not only surprised at the conduct of their superiors but also their decision to disrespect a High Court’s order.
They have, therefore, called on the Acting Chief Fire Officer, Edward Ekow Blankson, to obey the court’s ruling.
“These innocent women do not have anyone to turn to in these difficult times but to turn to you [media] to come to their aid. They have been at home for a very long time and it’s time they are reinstated,” the officers said.
Meanwhile, on behalf of their colleagues, the officers have appealed to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection as well as the Interior Minister to fast-track the reinstatement of the two affected female officers.
Source: adomonline.com
