Industrial Court sets up OSHA division

Industrial Court president Cecil Bernard disclosed this yesterday when he spoke on “Recent developments and current trends in industrial relations in TT” during a breakfast meeting at the Chamber of Industry and Commerce building, Columbus Circle, Westmoorings, yesterday.

Bernard said the division would be one of the new initiatives to come on stream at the court.

Interviewed after the meeting, Bernard told Newsday that Cabinet had approved the division and the court was in the process of selecting its staff.

He said the division, which will include two attorneys and ten part-time assessors, should make its debut within the next few months.

The meeting, which was hosted by the chamber, brought together representatives from several trade unions as well as members of the business community.

In his first visit to the chamber, since his appointment as president last year, Bernard said as of January 2007 the court planned to introduce several changes in order to provide swift judgments. He said the court proposed to establish fixed benches for dealing with individual cases. Each bench would consist of three judges sitting consistently together on any particular case, which would ensure that all judges are available at every sitting of the case.

In addition, he said, the court, which was in most cases packed with individuals who saw hearings as a “spectator sport” and had no interest in their purpose, should consider charging entrance fees to parties wanting to enter the courtrooms.

The introduction of an administrative judge with the duty of finding means of speeding up matters was also on the agenda for 2007.

In order to resolve “part-heard matters”, Bernard said, all parties would be called in so that resolutions could be sought by means other than adjudication.

Ian Welch, president of the chamber, said there was a need to increase the number of judges at the Industrial Court, in addition to increasing the number of courts and registries in TT.

He said there was also a need for a solid information technology support system to provide the instant transmittal of verbatim notes taken in court, to the computers of judges.

“A judge should not have to write or type notes and sift through mountains of paper and files to decide a matter,” he said.

Welch said, since the court worked closely with the Ministry of Labour, it should be networked and linked to the ministry to assist the court in expeditiously handling matters.