By Elesha George
A decade later and not much has changed about the Antigua Trades & Labour Union’s (AT&LU) response to resolving a civil matter with its former general secretary, Stafford Joseph.
Since 2010, Joseph has been mulling over taking legal action against the AT&LU for placing him on a 120-day suspension, which ultimately led to his implicit termination.
On September 27 2009, during the AT&LU’s 70th Annual Delegation Conference, the union employee recalled that the meeting was abruptly interrupted while the AT&LU President Wigley George made the statement, giving way for the motion to have him suspended.
This began a series of action, which forced Joseph to seek solace from the Labour Department whose ruling on December 23 2009 stated, among other things, that the union acted “callously in its treatment” of its employee and that the process which led to his constructive dismissal involved a number of “missteps” and “acts of omission” on the AT&LU’s part.
The then Labour Commissioner, Hesketh Williams recommended that the former union employee be compensated $109,487.50 to amicably resolve the matter.
Now, in 2020, Hugh Joseph, the current general secretary for the AT&LU is still insisting that Joseph and his representatives fight the union in court.
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