The Supreme Court (SC) by a majority decision of three-two, on Wednesday ruled that the Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) has no constitutional mandate to belong to a Union.
The court held that it is contrary to Article 24 (Four) of the 1992 Constitution for the employees or employers of the Service to unionise under the Labour Act 2003, Act 651.
While Mr Justice Julius Ansah, Mr Justice Jones Dotse and Mr Justice Aning Yeboah expressed the majority decision that workers of CEPS had no constitutional right to form or join a Union; Mr Justice William Atuguba and Mrs Justice Sophia Adinyira, held the dissenting view that employees of the Service could associate with any Union of their choice.
The Management of the Service had gone to the SC for "a declaration that on a true and proper interpretation of the Labour Act 2003 (Act 651), particularly section one, the application or the purported application of the said Act to cover CEPS as established by law is inconsistent with, or in contravention of Article 24 (Four) of the Constitution, and to that extent the Court ought to declare that restrictions prescribed by law and reasonably necessary in the interest of national security or public order require that CEPS be excluded from the application of the Labour Act 2003 (Act 651)".
The majority decision held that even though Article 24 of the Constitution enjoins workers to join trade unions of their choice to promote their economic and social rights and interests, by the very nature of their functions, restrictions should be put on security agencies, including the Army, the Police and CEPS to prevent them from joining trade unions.
The dissenters contended that the constitutional interpretation of the Labour Act, makes CEPS a non-security agency, and not until the law-makers amended the laws, CEPS, which had gone to court for the proper constitutional interpretation of the Labour Act 2003, (Act 651) could not be exempted from unionising.
As the mouthpiece of the government on constitutional matters, the Attorney-General was joined to the suit, while the Public Services Workers' Union (PSWU), which had previously been engaged in a legal tussle with CEPS over unionization, was an interested party to the suit.
Mr Fiifi Yankson appeared for CEPS; Mrs Effiba Amihere represented NLC; Mr Philip Addison was counsel for PSWU (interested party); while Mrs Amma Jantuah, a Chief State Attorney stood in for the Attorney-General.