The Sport Company of T&T (Sportt) has to fork out over $5 million to compensate 18 former employees who were unfairly fired amid allegations of financial mismanagement within the company.
The State-owned special purpose company has been locked in legal battles in the Industrial Court with the former employees, many of whom were fired prior to a restructuring exercise which commenced in early 2011.
Sportt has now been forced to concede defeat in almost all of the lawsuits after its main defence—that its actions were justified —failed to succeed when it opted to contest the case in a trial before three Industrial Court Judges in 2012.
In addition to being required to compensate the former employees for their monthly salaries for the remainder of their contracts, Sportt was also ordered to pay some of them their contractual gratuities calculated at 20 per cent of their gross salary during the period of employment. In some of the cases it was also forced to pay exemplary damages for the possible implications to the workers’ future employment prospects because they were fired amid serious allegations of poor management within the company.
The most recent lawsuit was determined by the court last Monday, with Sportt’s former executive facilities manager Sherlan Cabralis receiving $434,899 in damages.
In her claim, Cabralis had alleged she was fired in June 2009 with almost a year left on her contact, after she was informed by the company’s board that it was investigating her involvement in the renovations at its headquarters at Henry Street, Port-of-Spain.
Most of the former employees before the court were part of the 107 who were fired three days after the restructuring exercise was announced during a special staff meeting at the Hasely Crawford Stadium, Port-of-Spain, on January 7, 2011.
Senior manager Charles Branche was among the batch who were terminated following of the meeting. Last July, the court awarded him $1,083,024—the highest compensation package thus far.
$90,000 for 3 hours work
One of the most intriguing cases involved Sue Ellen Rajnauth-Williams, who was hired as an administrative assistant in June 2010 but was told her services were no longer required after a mere three hours on the job. She has since been awarded $90,000.
In all of the lawsuits, filed by three major trade unions representing the workers, the unions claimed that the company was “harsh and oppressive” in firing them without giving them detailed reasons or a fair opportunity to be heard. The unions also claimed that Sportt’s entire management of the exercise was contrary to good industrial relations practice.
The company was represented by attorney Larry Williams while Anthony Bullock appeared for the Banking Insurance and General Workers Union (BIGWU), which represented the majority of the employees.
There are still a handful of cases still before the court and a yet to be settled or determined. However, legal sources said the they will most likely end in a similar fashion to those already determined.