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Supreme Court Setback For CWU
posted (July 24, 2020)
And while the police department has responded with seriousness to the law enforcement mis-step at the Port of Belize on Wednesday, the fight continued in the Supreme Court today for the 36 workers who lost their jobs.

As we've been reporting the Attorney General filed an urgent application for an injunction on behalf of the Labour Department.

Labour argues that Port as the employer has to inform the Labor Commissioner, and allow for proper consultation before they are allowed to move ahead with terminations due to redundancy.

From the Government's perspective, because the Port did not properly consult the Commissioner, the lay-offs violate the labor laws. Of course, as we now all know, the Port went ahead with the terminations anyway. So, government argued for the court to order re-instatements.

Arguments were heard before Justice Sonya Young on Wednesday and she gave her decision at 10:00 this morning. She told a disappointed courtroom that the application for reinstatement was refused on the grounds that reinstatement is a ruling made after a case of wrongful termination has been fully litigated, and is not available as an interim relief.

The Port's Attorney, Godfrey Smith explained that the Government waited too late to make its filing:

Godfrey Smith, SC - Attorney for PBL
"The judge ruled that she would not grant an interim injunction. Neither would she reinstate the employees, as requested by the Labour Commissioner. Before giving, very briefly, the reasons why she reached that decision, I wish to point out that her judgment made it pellucidly clear that it was the Labour Commissioner who had waited until the last minute to rush to court, to seek to stop the terminations, after having sufficient notice of it. I say that simply because there has been a lot of back and forth, as to whether the Port tried to rush and act in an underhanded way and so on."

"The reason why the injunction was not granted because, in the judgment of the Supreme Court, the applicants had waited too late - too long - and the terminations had already occurred. They had sufficient time to act, and the court would not make an order that it can't enforce."

"On the order for reinstatement, for reasons the judge said, she could not grant that order. The first reason, she said, was that the court had no jurisdiction to do so. Basically, when you go to court to ask for reinstatement, remember this is what's called an interim application. This isn't the substantive matter. You're saying stop this thing until we can look into, but to reinstate somebody is effectively to give the final decision. You can't do that at this stage. Importantly, the judge pointed out that it wasn't the place of the Labor Commissioner to ask for reinstatement of employees. If employees have been wrongfully terminated, they need to come and say, we wish to be reinstated. How is it that the Labour Commissioner, who is not a party to the contract between PBL and the Workers - they're not involved. You can't come and ask for that. So, that was rather odd."

We also got reaction from Evan Mose Hyde who lamented the setback, while the CWU's attorney said there are other avenues to challenge:

Evan "Mose" Hyde - President, CWU
"Our matters have unfortunately not come before a court, but a lot of attention has come on this particular - which would have had the effect of lowering the temperature just a bit. Unfortunately, the technicalities, and understandably, that is the way it works. The learned judge saw it that the way that this has been attempted by the Government does not work in her wisdom. Fair, but what has not been settled remains unsettled. And the temperature remains the same. Our issues remain unresolved."

Anthony Sylvestre - Attorney for CWU
"As we're speaking, we are in the process of compiling the requisite evidence, so that we can file the unfair dismissal claim, and the wrongful dismissal claim to the Labour Complaints Tribunal as early as Monday. Fortunately, Labour Complaints Tribunal has been constituted by the Minister responsible for Labour, and as a result, we now have that avenue to pursue. So, all is not lost, and so, we'll pursue that."

Reporter
"Can the other side complain of an appearance of bias from the Commissioner, given that she has pursued this application?"

Anthony Sylvestre
"No, no, no, the act itself, under section 7, provides that the Labour Commissioner can institute proceedings against an employer, and also provides that the Labour Commissioner can institute proceedings against an employer, on behalf of an employee. So, that specific point is, with respect, is misconceived. But, we expect anything. Certainly, it will not be surprising for us that when we file our complaint to the Labor Commissioner Tribunal, that they wish to take such a point, and perhaps, they may wish to challenge the constitution of the Labour Complaints Tribunal."

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