PSA takes Civil Aviation Authority to court

At a press conference yesterday, PSA’s first vice president Christopher Joefield said, the union filed a High Court action against the Authority on April 12 after senior air traffic controller Dhanesh Kumar was suspended by CAA management after he made comments in a private Facebook group called Piarco Atcos. “Kumar being a member of a secret Facebook group and his friends were engaging in a conversation regarding matters at work and the information came to the attention of the management of the Authority and they decided that they will take disciplinary action against him,” he said. According to the action filed, Kumar was summoned to the office of Alexis Brathwaite, manager of Air Traffic Services (MATS) and was presented with a memorandum advising him of an investigation into certain postings made in the group. On November 9, Kumar replied to the Memorandum indicating that he was not minded to comment on anything mentioned in the group as this would be a violation of the requirement of confidentiality in the group.

On November 18, 2016, Kumar was served with a Memorandum from the Human Resources Manager, Bernard Mohamdally notifying him of a disciplinary hearing. On that Memorandum, he was charged with “gross misconduct” over a post on Facebook on or about October 24, 2016 where allegations against the board and then director general of Civil Aviation were made.

Following the hearing in January this year, Kumar was suspended from March 18 to March 31 without pay. Joefield said CAA management indicated that Kumar violated one of their human resource policies but, at the time of the incident, they did not have anything in relation to social media. He claimed when the PSA made enquiries, the company moved to have a policy on social media passed by the Board.

“We have engaged our attorneys Travers Sinanan and Avory Sinanan SC to treat with the matter. We are very clear that when it comes to the welfare of public officers in general and in civil aviation, it appears management will spare no expense to abuse these employees and it is on that basis we have decided to challenge the action of the management.” “If this is not challenged it could set a dangerous precedent for all employees at the Authority and we are saying your constitutional rights to privacy is also at risk as workers should have the right to express their views without having to run the risk of being taken to task for it,” he said.