THA ordered to pay $4M to 13 fired contract workers

Eliz­a­beth Gon­za­les 

The To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly (THA) must pay more than $4 mil­lion in com­pen­sa­tion to 13 for­mer con­tract work­ers it dis­missed af­ter the 2021 THA elec­tions.

The In­dus­tri­al Court de­liv­ered its fi­nal or­der on Mon­day, giv­ing the THA un­til 30 Sep­tem­ber 2025 to make the pay­ments.

Each work­er will re­ceive com­pen­sa­tion for out­stand­ing va­ca­tion leave, the re­main­der of their con­tracts, and pro-rat­ed gra­tu­ity. Pay­outs range from just over $151,000 to near­ly $400,000, de­pend­ing on salary, po­si­tion and time left on con­tract. The to­tal comes to $4,017,507.61.

This rul­ing fol­lows the Court’s 30 April judg­ment, which found the dis­missals “harsh and op­pres­sive and con­trary to the prin­ci­ples and prac­tices of good in­dus­tri­al re­la­tions.”

Twelve work­ers re­ceived ter­mi­na­tion let­ters on 31 March 2022. The 13th, Dion Win­ches­ter, was dis­missed on 8 April 2022. All were part of the Com­mu­ni­ty Part­ner­ship Unit (CPU) in the Of­fice of the Chief Sec­re­tary, with some em­ployed since 2009. Roles in­clud­ed Field Part­ner­ship Of­fi­cers, In­ves­ti­ga­tion and As­sess­ment Of­fi­cers, and ad­min­is­tra­tive sup­port.

The Ad­vo­cate Trade Union filed com­pen­sa­tion com­pu­ta­tions on 7 May. The THA did not sub­mit ob­jec­tions or coun­ter­claims. The Court said, “The Court is sat­is­fied there­fore, that it can pro­ceed to give its fi­nal or­der in these dis­putes, since a no­tice of Ap­peal does not con­sti­tute an au­to­mat­ic stay of ex­e­cu­tion.”

Al­though the THA filed a no­tice of ap­peal on 5 June, it did not ap­ply for a stay.

Speak­ing ear­li­er in June, Chief Sec­re­tary Far­ley Au­gus­tine said, “We start­ed the ap­peal process since last week and we are con­fi­dent that this rul­ing will be over­turned.”

Un­less the Court of Ap­peal rules oth­er­wise or grants a stay, the THA re­mains legal­ly bound to pay the full amount by the dead­line.