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National Receiver Will Pay Workers – But He Doesn’t Know Who To Pay
posted (December 22, 2010)
Those 275 national transport workers who have been jobless and without a paycheck since December seventh may be getting some relief - possibly in time for Christmas.

We say "may" and "possibly" because we never know how things will go - but there was an encouraging sign today when Eamon Courtenay, the attorney for the receiver Kevin Castillo told us that the receiver is ready to pay - he just doesn't know who to pay. Courtenay told us what's the source of the confusion:…

Eamon Courtenay, attorney for the Receiver
"Who are the employees of the company? All the documents, all the computer records of the company have disappeared and so he is prepared to pay as long as he can get some way of verifying who are the employees. It is very regrettable, we are close to Christmas and we can't establish who are the employees. So as long as that information is available to him he will do the right thing."

Jules Vasquez
"Whose fault is this that the information is not forthcoming, is it a breakdown in communications or its some willful act of omission on the part of the persons who ran the company before?"

Eamon Courtenay, attorney for the Receiver
"All I can say to you is my instructions are that when the receiver turned up at the premises of the company he found no documents that were relevant of the accounting of the company, records of employment of the company. He found that the servers were taken out of the office. The only computer that was there had obsolete information on it. The security cameras were there but the recording device was taken out, so we don't know who came into the offices and took out these documents. The essential information of the company has been taken by I don't know who but all that I can say on behalf of the receiver is that he wishes to have the information at the soonest possible time so that he can pay the workers if they are due any monies."

Lisa Shoman, Attorney for National
"The company has provided all the information that it could. We were able to reconstruct some of the papers because there is some dispute as to the accounts. We've given all of that to the labor department, the labor department has checked it and they are satisfied with the figures that they have been given. They have been instructed to meet with the receiver to make sure that the receiver does the right thing as far as that is concerned."

Phillip Jones, Former Operations Manager
"I believe today they should be meeting along with the receiver to ensure that that process continues and hopefully before Christmas some sort of payment arrangement is made for the workers that we have."

Courtenay was in court today agreeing with the attorney for the National Trasnport in another matter. That is the matter of the injunction against the Department of Transport in the northern zone. It's more than two years old - and it prohibits the government from issuing road service permits in the north. But now that National Transport has been taken over by a receiver and is in-operational - Government wants the injunction lifted so that it is free to issue new permits to take up those routes.

The matter was heard before acting Chief Justice Sam Awich this morning. He upheld the injunction but said the matter has to be heard as soon as possible, granting an adjournment until January fourth.

Attorney for National, Lisa Shoman says the receiver has intentions to resume the runs.

Lisa Shoman, Attorney for National
"The receiver Mr. Kevin Castillo put in an affidavit saying that as receiver they are prepared to resume the runs, they just needed a period of time to see what was the position and decide what they will do. So he has now put in an affidavit to the court saying that they can resume provision. So the court is at this point in time granting an adjournment in all fairness to the receiver who has now joined the case for the applicants for judicial review because they will have to now make decisions as to ultimately how they pursue this matter."

And National has one more matter before the Supreme Court. They yesterday asked for an urgent injunction seeking to block the Belize Bank from taking buses owned by Belize Transit - which is a Novelo's owned company but separate and distinct from National Transport - which is the one being foreclosed upon.

Now, Belize Transit is responsible for the city buses - and Shoman says that if the company can't hold unto its assets, commuters in the city will be inconvenienced:….

Lisa Shoman, Attorney for National
"As you know very well City busses were not the subject of what the entire receivership was about and we say that the receiver has a fiduciary responsibility not only to ensure that things are done properly but that if the receiver's actions work in such a way that then Belize City commuters are affected, that is a serious matter and the receiver will have to answer for that."

Jules Vasquez
"I don't want to speak pejoratively of your clients but they transferred those busses into Belize Transit December 2. It's clearly an avoidance technique."

Lisa Shoman, Attorney for National
"That is actually an allegation Jules and that is part of the subject matter of the entire action. We are saying that the busses were lawfully for Belize Transit. Part of the issue here of course is that the bank will have one view and the company will have another."

On this occasion - Justice Oswell Legall - took the view of the bank, that no injunction should be granted and also awarded them costs.

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