By Tahna Weston
The President of the Antigua and Barbuda Free Trade Union (ABFTU) is of the opinion that there might be political interference in the operations of the Industrial Court.
Samuel James made the comments while speaking about an issue involving industrial action at the Antigua Masonry Products (AMP).
James highlighted an ongoing court dispute between the company and the workers, who are being represented by the ABFTU.
The workers periodically engaged in industrial action in July, August and September of this year. However, on September 2 while on the picket line the workers’ bargaining agent was served with court papers on behalf of AMP, which informed them that the matter had been filed before the Industrial Court. This brought an immediate halt to any further industrial action and forced the disgruntled workers to return to the job.
However, the AMP later withdrew its claim, which prompted the union to file court proceedings on behalf of the workers.
James said following a number of court applications and a notification from the office of the Labour Minister that they will be having a conciliation hearing of the matter, a pre-trial review set for October 4 was vacated without warning or explanation.
However, this was done after the court on September 13, at a case management conference, made a number of orders, including that the Attorney General’s chambers file an application and supporting affidavit seeking the court’s consent for the participation of the Minister of Labour in the proceedings that are before the court.
“The second order was that the employees should file a memorandum and witness statement on or before the 23rd of September, 2024, and the third order was that the employees file additional witness statements and documents, on or before the 20th of September, and the final and perhaps most telling order was that a pre-trial review would be held on October 4th.
“Lo and behold, on the 27th of September, without warning, without explanation, we received a notice of vacation from the Industrial Court of the pre-trial review, which was set for October 4th. In other words, that review was not going to happen, and that a new date will be fixed in due course,” James said.
He noted that there appears to be efforts afoot to delay this court matter involving the AMP workers.
“There seems to be a concerted effort to delay this and we suspect … that there is some political interference into the operation of the Industrial Court because it can’t be that a couple of weeks ago we have a president who was determined to treat this particular matter in an urgent manner and in our view – that opposed what we perceived the company’s interest — that they didn’t want this matter to be heard in a speedy manner. And we are saying that without water in our mouth,” James said.
He also voiced his concern that an interim president has been appointed to the Industrial Court, even while there is still a sitting president.
When contacted by Observer for a response to James’ accusations of political interference in the Industrial Court, Minister of Labour Sir Steadroy Benjamin denied the allegation.
“At no time at all has any interference been given, taken with respect to the Court’s operation. I am surprised to hear this matter.
“As a matter of fact, there is a prominent industrial relations expert Mr [Anderson] Carty who has complained repeatedly about certain activities in adjudication at that court, and no action whatsoever has been taken by anyone with respect to that particular matter because the executive does not get involved in the operations of the Court. That statement therefore, again, is misleading, incorrect and wrong,” Sir Steadroy said.
James has promised to take his concerns to the Judicial and Legal Services Commission in order to get justice on behalf of the AMP workers.
