Union leaders call for Industrial Court judge to step down

Members of the Joint Trade Union Movement (JTUM) opted out of the special sitting of the Industrial Court for the opening of the new law term 2024 to 2025 on Tuesday morning. Instead, they joined the president of the Trinidad and Tobago National Nurses Association (TTNNA) Idi Stuart and the president of the Estate Police Association (EPA) Deryck Richardson in their call for the court’s Industrial Relations Chairman Lawrence Achong to step down.

Earlier this year, Richardson, Stuart, and a representative of the Trinidad and Tobago Unified Teacher’s Association (TTUTA) made the call for him to go. On Tuesday while on the Brian Lara Promenade, they got support from their comrades.

“This morning (Tuesday) in particular the JTUM which includes the EPA and its executives, call for the removal of the chairman of the special tribunal of the Industrial Court Mr Larry Achong,” JTUM President Ancel Roget said.

Roget made it clear their stance had nothing to do with the Industrial Court.

“We hold no position against the court itself or the various judges that comprise the court,” Roget added.

The EPA president explained that the protest was necessary and cited the 2014 retrenchment of Royal Bank officers. He said the matter went to the Special Tribunal which ruled that the association (EPA) did not have any locus standi (capacity to bring an action to the court) and the matter was stood down.

Richardson said they took the matter to the High Court which agreed with the Special Tribunal, so in 2019, they took it to the Appeal Court which agreed with the association and struck down the decision of the Special Tribunal and the High Court.

He added that in a “shocking move,” the Special Tribunal sought leave to appeal to the Privy Council.

“So what we had a situation there now that the place that we go for justice was actually appealing a judgment in which they had no interest and we made that public,” he said.

Richardson said the Privy Council, however, questioned the conduct of the Special Tribunal.

This was written in the letter JTUM sent to Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley on September 12.

In it, the union said the Privy Council observed that the tribunal neglected the principles of impartiality and neutrality. The letter said the tribunal was further criticised for abdicating its statutory duties and acting as if it had an interest in the outcome on behalf of a third party.

Richardson said the Privy Council referred the matter back to the Special Tribunal to be heard but no one who was party to the matter could sit in the hearings.

“Unless Mr Larry Achong stands down or be removed from the position, we will have to wait until another chairman of the Special Tribunal is appointed and that we find to be reprehensible and is an obligation of the responsibility of those in authority to ensure justice is dispensed and dispensed quickly,” he said.

Richardson said Achong was the only person who sat on the panel and now as Industrial Relations Chairman he has to be present for there to be a quorum.

“In the law, there is no provision for anybody to sit in for the chairman of the Special Tribunal,” he said.

JTUM called on the Prime Minister to take the appropriate steps to rectify this matter.

Meanwhile, the JTUM leader said he has not forgotten how former Industrial Court president Deborah Thomas-Felix was “removed from office.”

On December 12, 2023, JTUM, the Federation of Independent Trade Unions and NGOs (FITUN), and the National Trade Union Centre of Trinidad and Tobago (NATUC) delivered a letter to President Christine Kangaloo expressing their concern after a new court president was named.

The union leader claimed Thomas-Felix was given the news via telephone while on an assignment in Geneva.

“There could be nothing more disrespectful than that approach…the President did not even have the level of decency of respect to acknowledge, let alone respond to the country’s three trade union bodies representing workers in this country,” Roget said.