Unions hit criticism of Industrial Court

At a news briefing outside the court, Roge who is head of the Joint Trade Union Movement (JTUM), called on others in society, including Cabinet Ministers, to also defend the Industrial Court on what he saw as an attack on its independence.

He said while the JTUM may not agree with some of the court’s rulings, JTUM had never criticised the court, unlike the businessman.

Alleging an “unrelenting and frontal attack” on the court by the businessman, Roget said, “To have the temerity to suggest that the Industrial Court is ruling in favour of the unions and that it is bad for business and productivity, and that the judges were trained in Siberia under Stalin, is an open attack on the court.” He said if the High Court and Appeal Court cannot be so attacked, why is the Industrial Court attacked? Roget said without the Industrial Court the country would collapse into anarchy and chaos. He alleged a deafening silence from the Cabinet which, he said, should declare its support for the court’s independence, specially calling on a statement by Attorney- General Faris Al-Rawi, who is Cabinet’s legal advisor, and Labour Minister, Jennifer Baptiste-Primus.

This is especially so given the Government’s efforts to push tripartisism.

“We are not happy with all the court’s judgements but we don’t launch vicious attack on the independence and sanctity of the Industrial Court.

“We are calling for contempt proceedings against those making these inciteful remarks against the court,” Roget said. The National Trade Union Centre (NATUC), in a statement from its general secretary, Michael Annisette, also condemned the businessman’s words, as “misleading and calculated.” Claiming clear evidence exists to show equality in the court, Annisette said that to blame low productivity on the court is “misleading and mischievous.” Saying the employee sees the workforce as an expense, Annisette said workers generate wealth for the nation to grow and sustain itself. “We in the NATUC are concerned about job creation, sustainable jobs and living wages but, at the same time, it cannot and must not be that we have productivity and a level of redistribution where the wealth is reassigned to just a few,” said Annisette.

Annisette alleged that many employers still see the relationship between the employer and the worker as that of master and servant. In that context therefore, one cannot blame the Industrial Court if the employer fails to adhere to the set standards of proper industrial relations practices”.