QUESTION
Mr Desmond, please I'm Aidoo and a student of UDS and my dad operates a garage for sale of cars, a pub and a supermarket.
We always open for work even on Sundays but as we tried to go for work today, dad called us not to open the garage shop because he is a legible candidate for the KMA's Chief Executive position but refused to tell us how that could affect him.
Please, could that be a legal issue???
ANSWER
Mr Aidoo, if you could listen to the radio yesterday, today is a holiday via an executive instrument because of the Eid-Fitr celebration of Muslims on Saturday.
A public holiday is a holiday generally established by law.
Holidays can land on a specific day of the year, be tied to a certain day of the week in a certain month or follow other calendar systems.
Public holidays in Ghana are governed by the Holidays Act, 2001, Act 601 as amended by Act 626. The law specifies quite a number of holidays and the President through the interior Minister, may in the public interest, by Executive Instrument declare any other day to be a public holiday just like today.
The law governing public holidays is that all offices, businesses, trading and work related concerns are required to close down and observe the day.
The law only provides exceptions for certain category of businesses to open on public holidays.
These are businesses or shops dealing with food or grocery, drugs or pharmacy, licensed restaurants or hotels, local markets for sale of food or foodstuffs, premises licensed for sale of spirit, wine, and beer under the Liquor Licensing Act, 1970 (Act 331), the running of an essential public service specified such as water supply services, electricity supply services, health and hospital services, sanitary services, air traffic and civil aviation control services, meteorological services, fire services, air transport services, supply and distribution of fuel, petrol, power and light, telecommunications services and public transport services.
The punishment for an individual opening a shop or businesses which do not fall under the exceptions on a public holiday is summary conviction to a fine not exceeding 100 penalty units (NB:each penalty unit currently is equivalent to GHC12) or to a term of imprisonment not exceeding three months or both.
Where the offence is committed by a body of persons such as a limited liability company, every director or officer of that company shall be deemed to have committed that offence and in the case of a partnership or firm, every partner of the partnership or firm shall be deemed to have committed that offence.
In the case of your father, shops licenced under the Liquor Licensing Act for selling alcoholic beverages fall under the exception in the law.
This implies that if your father’s pub is licensed under the law he should have no problem in opening it today, which is a public holiday.
In the case of the supermarket, much will depend on the items sold. If it is mostly drinks and food items, it will fall under shops dealing with food or grocery in which case no offence would have been committed by your father for opening on a public holiday.
However, if the items sold in the supermarket are non-food items, your father would have fallen foul of the law.
However, opening the garage for sales of cars conflicts with the dictates of the law and perhaps an aspirant of his calibre shouldn't fall foul to it since it is a business which is not exempted from the category of shops that can open on public holidays. Your father would then have committed an offence by opening that office on a public Holiday like today.
In fact, your dad could be arrested and prosecuted immediately, since no discretion was given in the law to first warn people before prosecution.
You may therefore advise your dad to open the pub and supermarket for business if they are licensed but not the garage.
Ampadu Desmond
Raf.solicitors&legal consult
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