The High Court yesterday granted a motion filed by over 80 employees of The Standard Chartered Bank, SCB, seeking an injunction to restrain the bank’s sale or transfer to Access Bank Gambia Limited or any other entity (without the payment of a security deposit) until the main suit is resolved.
However while the court could not stop the sale it alternatively granted the employees’ prayer that SCB, in order to proceed with the sale, must deposit D250M into an interest bearing account to be controlled by the Sheriff of The Gambia, from where employees’ compensation or awards will be paid, should SCB decide to leave before the end of the substantive case.
The motion was heard and argued by Counsel Ebrahim Sanneh on behalf of the employees while Counsel Ida Drameh represented the SCB.
In its ruling on the motion yesterday, the High Court declared that the employees have fulfilled all the necessary legal conditions for the grant of their injunctions against SCB but because the sale of the bank is at an advanced stage, it may not be in the public interest to stop it.
Background
The staff, represented by Ebrima Jatta and Musu Badjie (acting on behalf of themselves and 80 others), filed a lawsuit in the High Court of The Gambia on March 10, 2025, against the bank seeking a declaration that their rights to continue employment and the protection of their wages are threatened. They are also seeking a declaration that the bank’s failure to provide and disclose relevant written information constitutes a breach of their employment contracts and therefore demanding an order for end-of-service and or severance pay, redundancy pay and for SCB to pay the proceeds of the Provident Fund due at the effective date of termination among other demands.
