Trade unionist Caswell Franklyn is accusing the Labour Department of turning away people seeking to register claims for unfair dismissal, putting their Employment Rights Tribunal case in jeopardy because there is a time limit for filing.
However, Chief Labour Officer Claudette Hope-Greenidge says that is not the case.
Franklyn told the Nation team that in recent weeks he sent several workers who have been dismissed to the Labour Department to make complaints of being unfairly dismissed, but they were told that no officers were available to take their reports.
“I have been hearing about it since the middle of last month, but I was not affected because the people whom I sent didn’t come back and say so until recently, over the last two weeks. I have heard about people not getting through, but none of them were mine. Now they are mine and I want to know what is happening.
“What I am concerned about is that you have 90 days in which to make a complaint to the Labour Department after you have been dismissed. Now if for some reason you cannot get there to make that claim, the Employment Rights Tribunal will not even hear your case. So you would have been dismissed for nothing and you might then try to go to the court for wrongful dismissal. But every wrongful dismissal might not work out to be wrongful, but it could be unfair. So, you need the simpler process of unfair dismissal,” the head of Unity Workers’ Union said.
However, when contacted, Hope-Greenidge said the department had officers available to serve the public, with several of them leaving the office at times to engage in field work.
“But be assured that a person who visits the office and may not for whatever reason be able to see the officers, there is provision for information to be taken and a follow-up to be conducted. Persons are not being turned away from the Labour Department. They are able to come with their claim, whatever that claim or their question or query is, and arrangements are made for their concerns to be addressed. We are in the business of serving and responding,” she said.
Nevertheless, Franklyn insisted that recently, two of his members who visited the department to register their complaints were told to return because there were no officers to see them.
He said the Labour Department must put systems in place to ensure workers who claim to be unfairly dismissed are not disadvantaged.
“I want everybody to know what is going on, so that when they go to the Labour Department and they tell them to come back, they must tell them, ‘I am not coming back, I want to make my claim’, even if they get the receptionist to record the claim. The claim only has to be recorded, because if it is recorded in the Labour Department that you went to make your claim, the 90 days stop running against you,” he said.