Roget bats for Industrial Court

THE TT Chamber of Industry and Commerce is being called on to state whether or not it is in agreement with recent statements attributed to two prominent businessmen that there is an anti-business bias at the Industrial Court. President of the Joint Trade Union Movement (JTUM) Ancel Roget yesterday asked, “What is the Chamber’s position in this regard? Is (businessman) echoing the sentiment of the Chamber and of all of those with responsibility to speak up but who are remaining silent?” Standing in the rain outside the Chamber’s offices in Westmoorings, surrounded by about 25 men and women from various JTUM member unions, Roget warned that the Chamber cannot remain silent on these “reckless (and) calculated” statements.
“We are with a different approach. We will intensify this action and we might very well be back here with thousands of workers (who) are impacted by such a statement,” Roget warned.
This past Tuesday, while standing outside the St Vincent Street, Port-of-Spain entrance of the Court, Roget issued a call to Attorney General (AG) Faris Al-Rawi and others to speak out against the businessmen’s remarks.
He reiterated this on Thursday, this time also calling on President Anthony Carmona, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley, the Law Association of TT and the Judiciary, to denounce the remarks.
“We call on (them) to come out in strong condemnation against this unbridled frontal attack on the independence of the Industrial Court, its judges and also (against) lumping in the trade unions in some sort of collusion against business,” Roget stated.
He later warned that unless the Chamber and others “do not come out in condemnation and bring contempt of court proceedings against (the businessmen) for this action,” JTUM would intensify its actions.
“We have a number of events planned, of which we are not at liberty to discuss (yet) but rest assured, we will not rest until justice is served in this particular issue,” the JTUM leader declared