Striking State Attorneys in the country have called the bluff of the Attorney General, Marietta Brew Appiah-Oppong, over her threat to sanction them if they fail to resume work on October 21.
The AG on last Friday ordered the Attorneys who began their strike on October 20, to resume work or risk losing their remuneration.
The directive was in pursuant to an order issued by the National Labour Commission to the Attorneys’ whose action is to push the government to resolve some outstanding issues relating to their salaries.
But responding to the threat, the President of the Association of State Attorneys, Ms Francisca Takyi Mensah said they would not end the strike because the Association followed the due process and has not erred in anyway.
“Our position is the legal position that should be enforced ….we are advising the Labour Commission that when you give award and it’s not enforced, go to the High Court per section 172 to enforce your orders” she said.
She held that the National Labour Commission has not been fair to the State Attorneys, saying “instead of siting down and let us talk in peace, they issue threats against us. When we appear before them and they are rather pampering the respondent, they are not acting by law”.
Ms Takyi Mensah said if the National Labour Commission wants the matter resolved, it should invite the three respondents and “tell them to give us our pension. Labour Commission should tell them to give us our pension instead of issuing threats …”
But the Public Relations Officer of the Ministry of Justice and Attorney General’s Department Ebenezer Owusu Ansah insists the necessary sanction will be applied if the state Attorneys do not call off the strike.
“At the end of the day if you do not come to work you are not going to be paid and that is the directive from the NLC… what we are saying is that, come to work and let us resolve this thing amicably if there are any other anomalies, we sit down gentlemanly and sort our issues out,” he advised
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