TDC restrained from terminating workers

The injunction was applied for by the Communication Workers Union (CWU) which is representing workers at the TDC.

The union sought the injunction in an emergency application after the TDC began offering severance packages to workers on Thursday without notifying the CWU. The union has contended that this goes against good industrial relations practices.

After almost four hours of submissions yesterday, the CWU’s lead counsel Douglas Mendes, SC, also sought a temporary injunction to cover the period the parties were in court.

It was granted by Industrial Court president Deborah Thomas-Felix who said the court was one of “industrial common sense.” In arguing against the substantive injunction being granted, attorney for the TDC Fyard Hosein,SC, said it would be “draconian and unparalleled” for the court to make an order against the company, saying it will have a great impact on the country. “The public interest is important,” he said.

Arguments continued well into the late evening yesterday.

In early May, TDC workers received the “assurance” of the company that no offer for voluntary separation can be offered to them without consultation of their majority union.

Although the “assurance” was not given by way of a formal undertaking, this was the position of the TDC at an injunction hearing at the Industrial Court.

The CWU applied for an injunction on May 4 seeking to restrain the TDC from terminating the contracts of workers until the determination of an industrial relations complaint filed in the Industrial Court as well as to restrain the TDC from making any offer for voluntary separation without consulting the union.

Presiding over the hearing were Thomas-Felix and members Albert Aberdeen, Kyril Jack, Kathleen George-Marcelle and newly appointed judge Azeem Mohammed.

Representing the CWU were Mendes and Imran Ali while Hosein and Rishi Dass represented the TDC.

The union filed two previous complaints relative to a decision to shut down the TDC without consulting the CWU and the development of VSE P packages to be considered by the Cabinet.

A decision to dissolve the TDC was announced at a post-Cabinet media briefing on March 9.

President of the CWU Joseph Remy said the union only received a call on the decision in a telephone conversation with the company’s line-minister, Tourism Minister Shamfa Cudjoe shortly before the announcement was made and after the decision was already taken by Cabinet.

TDC has approximately 114 employees with both fixed contracts and month-to-month employment.