The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A $165,000-plus award of past due redundancy pay “could not have come at a better time” for nine former Pioneer Shipping employees, following a “very significant” Court of Appeal ruling.

Obie Ferguson, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) president and attorney who represented the nine, said the decision to overturn the Supreme Court ruling affirmed that workers could also initiate redundancy pay-related cases in that court as well as the Industrial Tribunal.

Justice Issacs had ruled that redundancy pay could only be recovered in cases brought before the Industrial Tribunal.

However, the Court of Appeal noted that the part of the Employment Act he relied upon for his verdict emphasised that redundancy pay “may be recovered as a debt due to the employee in proceedings before the Tribunal”.

Focusing on the word ‘may’ in her verdict, Court of Appeal president, Justice Anita Allen, said this showed that the Industrial Tribunal did not have “exclusive jurisdiction” to hear redundancy pay-related cases.

“There is nothing ambiguous about it; it does not oust the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court to hear such matters and to order the recovery of such debts if warranted,” Justice Allen wrote.

“Hence the learned judge was wrong in determining that such claims could not be recovered in the Supreme Court...... Moreover, even if the Tribunal were to order the recovery of redundancy compensation, the successful employee would have to enforce it in any event in the Supreme Court pursuant to the Industrial Relations Act.”

Speaking to Tribune Business, Mr Ferguson said the latest Court of Appeal verdict had clarified another issue when it came to interpreting the Employment Act.

While Justice Isaacs had determined that workers could only initiate claims for redundancy pay before the Industrial Tribunal, Mr Ferguson said the Supreme Court still had to convert any ruling issued by that body into a judgment before it could be enforced.

As a result, the TUC president said he himself had determined that the Supreme Court “has the jurisdiction to deal with labour matters”, and that the Industrial Tribunal “is an alternative route by which you can pursue it.

“If you succeed at the Tribunal on any matter, in order for that ruling by the Tribunal to become an enforceable judgment, it has to go to the Supreme Court and be converted into a Supreme Court ruling,” Mr Ferguson added.

He told Tribune Business that the Court of Appeal verdict had “wider ramifications”, as both employers and unions/workers now know that redundancy pay claims could be initiated either at the Industrial Tribunal or Supreme Court level.

Mr Ferguson said the ruling also fitted with his wider efforts to “get some clarification”, via the courts, on areas of the Employment Act that “seem to be vague” and “somewhat uncertain”. Achieving this, he added, would make for smoother industrial relations in the Bahamas.

Meanwhile, the Court of Appeal implicitly criticised Pioneer Shipping and its affiliated companies for the manner in which they closed they doors on May 27, 2008.

Justice Allen wrote that the shipping companies, which were then based at Bay Street’s Union Wharf, “left the Bahamas without paying compensation to their employees as required by law”.

Mr Ferguson took up this theme, telling Tribune Business: “That was not a good example of a good corporate citizen.” He added that employees had worked for Pioneer Shipping and its affiliates for, in some cases, 29 and 24 years, and “to up and leave, in my view, was very irresponsible”.

However, with his clients agreeing with the company on what they were owed, the Court of Appeal also determined how much redundancy pay each of the nine should get.

“This money will be well used by them,” Mr Ferguson said. “One or two of them are at an age where it makes it somewhat challenging for them to find employment.

“One of them has died, and a couple of them have various difficult illnesses and have not been able to work consistently for the past four-five years. The award could not have come at a better time.

“It’s a very significant sum, and I’m certain it will go a very long way to helping them deal with backdated debts and expenses incurred over the past four to five years as a result of them not finding a job.”

Apart from Pioneer Shipping, the other three defendants in the action were Master Terminal (Bahamas), Union Wharf & Development Ltd and Raymond J. Thompson. The Court of Appeal also awarded the nine ex-employees interest at 6 per cent going back to May 27, 2008.

The awards were as follows:

Master Terminal (Bahamas) to pay:

$9,496.13 to Myriam Stapleton

$39,886 to Norris Arnett

$41,750 to Renee Bridgewater

Pioneer Shipping to pay:

$22,337 to the estate of Felicia Capron

$26,308 to Marietta Beckles

$10,150 to Ida Lewis

$6,163.95 to Winifred Barnett

$6,630 to Donsil Cleare

$2,506 to Sharen Lowe