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  • 2 years ago
MIC Institute of Technology Senior Instructor Kamal Ramlal was expecting to return to work on March 1st after being sent on three weeks paid suspension pending an investigation launched by MIC.


Well, on February 29th, he received a letter extending his suspension. TV6 News has been informed by the Public Services Association that there was a delay in appointing an investigator.


Alicia Boucher has the story.
Transcript
00:00 TV6 News has obtained a suspension letter dated February 27th, indicating that a paid
00:07 suspension of senior instructor at MIC Kamal Ramlal, which was expected to end on March
00:12 1st, has been extended to March 15th.
00:16 MIC stated that this was due to the investigation to be conducted and is based on allegations
00:22 by MIC that Ramlal disclosed confidential information without authorization or that
00:29 deliberate malicious action was taken which could bring the institute into disrepute.
00:35 The allegations against the instructor came one day after a TV6 News report where a trainee
00:41 who spoke to us on condition of anonymity complained about several issues affecting
00:46 the education of trainees at MIC Mokoya.
00:49 However, this has not been stated as a reason for the suspension.
00:54 General Secretary of the Public Services Association, Kellan Wallace, explains the reason for the
00:59 extension of Ramlal's suspension.
01:02 MIC had a delay in respect to appointing an investigator into this whole matter.
01:10 And the person they would have chosen to do the investigation was not accepted by us,
01:15 the association.
01:16 We would have then therefore put forward three names.
01:21 And then the first person that they would have chosen, she declined.
01:24 And then we have agreed on where the second person on our list has accepted it.
01:29 So the investigator has now been appointed.
01:32 Wallace says in doing so, MIC breached a collective agreement as he states that the process to
01:37 appoint an investigator is supposed to be initiated three days subsequent to a suspension.
01:43 Six days had passed prior to them reaching out to us with the names for investigator.
01:49 So there while a notice would have gone out showing that Mr. Ramlal is no longer on the
01:58 timetable as the senior instructor at the Mokoya Center.
02:03 So they had time to do that, but not time to appoint an investigator.
02:06 The PSA tells us it is not satisfied with the time the process has taken, as we've been
02:12 informed that the senior instructor is eager to return to work.
02:17 How is this affecting, if I may ask, your member?
02:21 It has affected him tremendously.
02:22 It is not only him, but his family, because his father, also a previous union person within
02:30 his own sphere, is very disturbed at the manner and the high handedness in which this has
02:37 been done.
02:38 While the PSA awaits the outcome of the investigation, Wallace is of the view that Ramlal should be
02:43 allowed to return to work as he claims that many of the problems the instructor has been
02:48 writing MIC's management seeking redress of are now being sorted out.
02:53 Give me an idea as to what you're referring to.
02:56 Right.
02:57 There's a specific machine that is needed for the students to do practical work.
03:03 Another department has one of those machines that they are not using all the time.
03:09 He would have been asking and recommending that they be allowed to use that machine.
03:15 But yet the other person, one of the golden boys or apple of the eyes in MIC, held on
03:21 to it like if it is his personal machine and didn't want to release it to allow Mr. Ramlal's
03:27 students to use it.
03:28 So these are the things.
03:29 But all of a sudden, now the students are going to be allowed to use it.
03:34 We contacted MIC on the extension of suspension of the senior instructor.
03:39 MIC tells us it is an active investigation and as such it wishes not to comment on the
03:45 matter.
03:46 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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