By Sue-Ann Wayow
THE lack of social dialogue in the workplace is evident in the numerous cases brought before the Industrial Court, some of which could have been resolved through bilateral communication.
On Monday, the Court’s President Deborah Thomas-Felix at the Special Sitting for the Opening of the 2022/2023 Law Term again repeated her calls for genuine social dialogue about transformations and adjustments in the world of work amongst employers and employees.
She had made the call during last year’s opening of the law term.
Thomas-Felix said during the year in review, from September 15, 2021 to September 14, 2022, 1099 new cases were filed at the Industrial Court, 133 cases more than the same period in 2020/2021 which recorded 966 cases.
The Court disposed of 797 matters this year in review which was 240 less than the 1037 matters disposed of for the same period in 2020/2021.
According to Thomas-Felix, the disposal rate in 2021/2022 is 72.5%, which is 34.8% percentage points lower than the period 2020/2021 when the disposal rate was 107.3%.
In giving further statistics, she said in the number of disputes disposed of, there were 193 judgments, 312 cases were withdrawn, 263 matters were settled through the conciliation and bilateral process and 29 matters were dismissed.
Thomas-Felix said, “Of the total number of disputes filed at the Court for this year, 2021/2022, Trade Disputes remain the largest number of matters filed with a total of 730 followed by 124 Retrenchment and Severance Benefits Disputes, 111 Occupational Safety and Health Disputes and 58 Industrial Relations Offences.”
For the period of the pandemic since March 2020 to September 14, 2022, the number of cases filed at the Industrial Court was 2516 cases.
Thomas-Felix said, “These figures tell a story and suggest that there is a need for more discussions and agreement at the workplace. It can be posited, that there are two very valuable lessons which we can take away from the experience of the past two years with the continued assault of the Covid-19 virus on the world.
“The first lesson is that no man is an island, and the second, particularly in times of crisis, is that we need to collaborate and be our brother’s keeper while we sing from the same hymn book. I therefore urge the social partners, to work together to contribute to this nation’s further development. Step back from deeply entrenched positions that have born no fruit thus far and take a leap to embrace genuine consultation with the persons seated on the opposite side of the table.”
“There is much to be gained when parties meet and resolve their issues without a third party,” she added.
With the Covid-19 experience, there was an urgent need, for the strengthening of Articles and Clauses in collective agreements to treat with existing issues of occupational safety and health at work, and to make provisions as far as possible for any future public health crisis which may occur at the workplace, Thomas-Felix also said.
Private sector closes off agreements more than public sector
Thomas-Felix noted that the majority of collective agreements being finalised over the recent past years were from the private sector and not the public sector.
“Currently in Trinidad and Tobago, public sector negotiations are taking place and there is much anxiety among workers. It is noteworthy, that several new collective agreements have been finalised in the private sector over the past years,” she said.
In 2019, out of a total of 40 new collective agreements registered, 38 were from the private sector, in 2020 there were 55 new agreements registered with 50 from the private sector, in 2021, 104 new collective agreements were registered with 85 from the private sector and for this year so far 90 new collective agreements were registered, 73 of which are from the private sector, the Court’s President disclosed.
Tobago
And Thomas-Felix lamented about the court situation in Tobago.
She said, “Over the past two years access to justice for the people of Tobago has been very difficult. Due to the pandemic, the serving of process documents from the Court came to a halt, litigants were impeded from travelling to Trinidad and even in case management, there were connectivity challenges. This has resulted in a backlog of cases from Tobago.”
Thomas-Felix is hoping that within the new law year, there will be open Court sessions in Tobago during the August vacation to clear up some of the backlog.
