00:00President of the State Police Association, Derek Richardson, says there is a difference
00:04between security officers and state police.
00:08His union is only legally able to represent the latter, which are precepted officers.
00:14Those security officers by far outnumber state police.
00:19Richardson is, however, concerned that security officers, the majority of whom are women,
00:24are being exploited.
00:26Police say they are being paid minimum wage and not entitled to overtime after eight hours
00:32as their shifts have been ruled to be 12 hours long.
00:36So for years, the security officer was disenfranchised lawfully for overtime after eight hours by
00:48a tribunal who had no jurisdiction to superlose.
00:55That is a hell of a situation because security officers have been terribly exploited as a
01:00result of that pronouncement by the special tribunal.
01:04Richardson says his union is restricted by law from approaching the tribunal to appeal
01:08the pronouncement.
01:10He describes the industrial climate as tense, with private companies having the upper hand
01:15on employees.
01:17I mean, I have a letter from one security company, right, where they put some pressure
01:24on the branch board to resign in keeping with what the special tribunal had said in another
01:31place, right?
01:32And when we wrote them and said, listen, you're victimizing our officers, they of course denied
01:38it.
01:39And then they said, no, simply that, listen, they're not going to work under the Act.
01:44So I would say they're not going to work under the Act, and there's no law which says
01:50that they cannot coerce, induce or victimize anybody from joining the association.
01:57At MSJ's Tuesday talks, Richardson says his union had a dispute with a local bank over
02:03the termination of estate police officers.
02:06It was heard by a special tribunal chaired by Lawrence Achong, who ruled in favor of
02:11the employer.
02:12The EPA took the matter to the Court of Appeal and won.
02:15The matter was taken to the Privy Council by the special tribunal.
02:19When that, when the guns leave, we had a matter from a company that did have a branch board
02:27and we went before Mr. Achong, and Mr. Achong sat, and in three minutes it was over, because
02:36he said to us that he doesn't agree with the decision of the appeal court, and he
02:42has sought leave and got leave, and he will not be hearing any matter from the EPA, and
02:47subsequently walked out of the court.
02:49What grief.
02:51The Privy Council's judgment was delivered on the 30th of May.
02:55The court or tribunal has no interest of its own, of any model and individual of judges,
03:01in trying to prevent a successful challenge to a decision.
03:06Its sole function is that of an independent and impartial arbiter of disputes that come
03:11before it.
03:12A tribunal acts inconsistently with that function and compromises its independence and impartiality
03:20if it takes part in proceedings or to challenge a decision in an adversarial way, in effect
03:28aligning itself with the interests of the successful party to the dispute on which it
03:34has adjudicated.
03:36The union has been joined by other unions in their call for Achong's removal.
03:41Urvashi Tamari, Rupnay Rai, TV6 News.
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