By Garmah Never Lomo, garmahlomo@gmail.com
TEMPLE OF JUSTICE, Monrovia- The Supreme Court of Liberia and other subordinate courts across the country usually hand down verdicts in cases, but enforcement of Judgements remain weak, something that sparked protest by sacked Bea Mountain Company workers today, Monday, October 25, 2021 on the grounds of the court on Capitol Hill.
This has become major challenge for the Liberian Judiciary Branch of government.
The dismissed workers of the gold mining company in Liberia’s western Grand Cape Mount County, who had legally challenged their dismissals, won the case against the company since 2016, but enforcement of the verdict remains an uphill battle.
Besides Bea Mining company former employees, there are many other cases that were won by people who have continued to complain about the enforcement of the courts’ judgements.
Due to the weak enforcement of courts’ Judgement, early this morning, some former Bean Mountain, who formerly worked with the International Construction Engineering, staged a peaceful protest to call on the Supreme Court to enforce its judgement it made against the mining company in 2016.
According to the spokesperson of the group, Edward Gisi, they were working with the International Construction Engineering (ICE) but when the deadly Ebola virus epidemic hit Liberia in 2014, the manager of said company left the company and leaving them in the hands of Bea Mining Company through a documented memorandum of understanding.
Mr. Gisi said, they in turn hired by Bea Mining Company to build a gold mine for them something they did as former employees of ICE and things went smoothly for the first three months.
But in four months, Bea Mining Company told them to sign new contact when their previous contact with ICE had not expired at the time, something they vehemently opposed. The Bea Mountain Company is said to have later gone ahead and signed the new contact.
As the protest continued, with the former workers chanting slogans calling for their pay, Chief Justice Francis Korkpor arrived on the grounds of the Temple of Justice and spoke to the aggrieved workers.
Justice Korkpor assured the protesters that he will take them through their lawyer, promising that good news would be given to them through their lawyer, Cllr. Cooper Krauh, who is now Liberia’s Minister of Post and Telecommunications.
The angry former Bea Mountain workers’ spokesperson told Journalists after the company went ahead to sign the new contact without paying their remaining years with ICE, they were told took the matter to the Labour Ministry. And said that case was ruled in their favor, but the Bea Mining Company again took an appeal to the National Labour Court, which also again ruled in their favor.
Following their victory at the National LabourCourt, the company took another appeal to the Supreme Court of Liberia and Supreme Court upheld the ruling of the Labour court, ordering Bea Mining company to pay the employees their liabilities. But since then, the mining company is yet to take the judgement seriously.