President general of the Oilfields Workers’ Trade Union Ancel Roget says state-owned oil company National Petroleum (NP) is barking up the wrong tree by securing a stay of the Industrial Court’s order for 68 fired workers to be reinstated immediately.
Roget, who spoke with members of the media prior to conciliatory talks with Petrotrin at the Ministry of Labour, San Fernando, yesterday, said the union viewed the decision very seriously as there were suggestions the company was prepared to appeal even before the judgment was handed down.
On Wednesday, Industrial Court judges ruled the termination of 68 workers by the oil company was “harsh and oppressive” and ordered the company to reinstate them. The court also ordered NP to pay the workers all their salaries and benefits to date by the end of January. The company also was ordered to pay each worker $40,000 in damages before the year ends.
But less than an hour after the ruling, NP said it would challenge the ruling and in a late night sitting on Wednesday the company, through its lawyers, went in chamber court before Justice Allan Mendonca and secured a stay of the Industrial Court’s ruling.
Roget said yesterday: “We take very seriously the issue of the disregard and disrespect for the Industrial Court. “You fired the workers, we went thorough the system, we went to court and they got justice some 21 months after and at the end of the day are prepared to go the distance to ensure those workers do not get the justice the court determined?”
Roget said he was not surprised that an interim stay had been granted preventing the workers from returning to work yesterday morning. In their application for the stay on Wednesday night, NP’s attorneys argued the immediate reinstatement of the workers was contrary to the law. They submitted the Industrial Court exceeded its authority in so doing.
Granting the stay, Mendonca ordered NP to file the company’s substantive grounds of appeal and related arguments by Tuesday. NP said it had a right to appeal the decision which was in the best interest of the company and the country.
Roget said the union’s attorneys already have responded to the claims that were made and were confident at the end of the day the workers would be victorious.
He added: “We were expecting these workers would have been back out to work this morning (yesterday) but we were hearing that they (NP) were prepared to appeal even before the judgment was given. “It came as no surprise to us that in the dead of night last night they went to a judge in chambers asking for a stay of execution of the judgment.”
Roget also took issue with claims in an affidavit by the company that the jobs of the 68 workers no longer existed. “So while the court was pronouncing, NP was busy getting rid of the jobs of the workers in an effort to ensure all those workers did not return,” he said.
The issue
In October NP fired the 68 workers, who, it said, had engaged in an illegal work stoppage from August 13 to 15, 2013. The 68 were among 86 employees the company had initially suspended following the work stoppage.
NP staff had been protesting what they claimed was an attempt by management to privatise the company. The walkout also highlighted the employees’ concerns over management’s award of a $394,000 contract to a private company to do loading on the gantry.
The Issue
In October, NP fired the 68 workers, who, it said, had engaged in an illegal work stoppage from August 13 to 15, 2013. The 68 were among 86 employees the company had initially suspended following the work stoppage.
NP staff had been protesting what they claimed was an attempt by management to privatise the company. The walkout also highlighted the employees’ concerns over management’s award of a $394,000 contract to a private company to do loading on the gantry.