The Tobago House of Assembly has until September to pay over four million dollars to thirteen workers who were previously fired, in a final order dated June 30th 2025
00:00On April 30, 2025, the court delivered judgment in these trade disputes between the Advocate Trade Union, ATU, and the Tobago House of Assembly.
00:10The trade disputes are in respect to 13 workers whose employment was terminated by the Assembly after the change in administration.
00:20The employment of the 12 of the workers was terminated by letter dated March 31, 2022, under the hand of the Chief Administrator, Ms. Etlinn John.
00:31One worker, Mr. Dionne Winchester, had his employment terminated by letter dated April 8, 2022.
00:38In a final order obtained by TV6 News, the court found it fair and just to award the workers for their outstanding vacation leave and payment for the remainder of the period of their respective contracts.
00:52The court also found it just to order the payment of prorated gratuity for the periods served under their respective contracts existing at the time their employment was terminated.
01:05The court confined this payment to the time worked since gratuity is usually paid upon satisfactory completion of employment.
01:15The payment of gratuity was to be based on their basic rate of pay, unless their contracts provided for the inclusion of allowances in the computation of their gratuity.
01:26Minority Leader Kelvin Morris said he feels vindicated by the order.
01:30Well, again, I feel vindicated, you know, quite early.
01:34We would have asked the Assembly to at least consider, even if you have to do your restructuring, you know, you consider some fair settlement package for those workers.
01:48And therefore, the court found favor in that argument that the workers ought to be fairly compensated.
01:53We welcome it and it sets a fair tone for everyone going forward because we are seeing a number of firings happening across the government sector.
02:03And it's important that government as a whole understand that workers are people too.
02:09The THA has on or before September 30th, according to the order to effect payment.
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