THE Industrial Court has found the North Central Regional Health Authority NCRHA to be in contempt of court and has fined it $20,000.
The NCRHA was fined for failing to reinstate senior manager Adesh Deonarine in his post following a consent order approved by the court in March this year.
The court also ordered a further $10,000 compensation to Deonarine who has now been fully reinstated in his position at the NCRHA.
The matter was heard on Tuesday before Justice Herbert Soverall.
Deonarine, through his union, the Public Services Association (PSA), was represented by attorney Larry Lalla while Michael Quamina and Clayton Hackett appeared for the NCRHA.
In 2019, the union had taken action against the NCRHA claiming that NCRHA Chief Executive Officer Davlin Thomas had unlawfully suspended and had left the manager on administrative leave with basic pay for 21 months without instituting any disciplinary charges against the manager.
In the 2019 action, the union alleged that the NCRHA, in so suspending the manager for such a long period of time without any disciplinary charges, had acted in a manner that was oppressive, procedurally unfair and in breach of good industrial relations practice.
In March this year, the NCRHA conceded that it had no defence to the PSA’s court action and entered a consent order to pay the manager $100,000 in damages and all his outstanding allowances as well as to fully reinstate the manager in his post with effect from April 16, 2021.
However, upon returning to work the manager found that Thomas had taken away from the manager the majority of the NCRHA’s hospitals over which the manager had previously had authority, shifted him from his office at the Mt Hope Hospital to a smaller office at the Caura Hospital.
The manager also found that Thomas had taken away most of his staff and had assigned the office, responsibility for the most important hospitals and most of the manager’s staff to a person who had been acting in the post while he was on suspension.
Six weeks after his return to the job, the manager, acting through the PSA instituted contempt of court proceedings against the NCRHA for Thomas’ actions and for its failure to obey the March court order.
After hearing arguments by Lalla and Quamina, Justice Soverall held that the contempt was proven and fined the NCRHA the sum of $20,000 for contempt.
