Unfair dismissal hearing wraps up before ERT

The Employment Rights Tribunal (ERT) is expected to give a ruling soon in the unfair dismissal case involving former General Secretary of the National Union of Public Workers (NUPW) Roslyn Smith.

As the case wrapped up on Tuesday, ERT Chairman retired Justice Christopher Blackman gave the assurance that the tribunal’s decision would be given “shortly”, moments after Smith’s attorney-at-law Duana Peterson ended her cross-examination of the union’s retired Acting General Secretary Delcia Burke.

During the proceedings, Burke said she had advised Smith not to sign a letter outlining the latter’s 2016 appointment to the post of General Secretary as it contained a date of retirement.

“The claimant and I discussed the letter prior to her signing the letter. I advised her not to sign because the letter contained a retirement date. I told her ‘the council told you to bring the letter back’. Take it back’,” she said. She told the hearing that the document had been signed by Smith.

In her evidence, Burke stated that Smith however made several attempts to resolve the issue of her retirement age during meetings with the NUPW’s national council.

Smith was retired by the National Council of the union on March 31, 2019, while she was admitted at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital for an extended period due to an undisclosed illness. She was 65 at the time.

Throughout the proceedings, which began in January, a major bone of contention was whether the retirement age of the union was 65 or 67 and which retirement age applied in Smith’s case.

The former trade unionist was hired at the NUPW prior to 1994, when there was no stated mandatory retirement age for employees. Several union workers retired past the age of 65.

Burke, who left the union’s employ at age 69, also said she had made her own efforts to have the council overturn its decision not to extend Smith’s contract, during the latter’s hospitalization.

Smith is claiming almost half a million dollars in damages against the union which she served for almost 50 years.

Moments before ending the session, Blackman once again advised the NUPW to look into its protocol for recording the minutes of meetings, saying those provided in the hearing left much to be desired and had given him and the other two commissioners Frederick Forde and Edward Bushell “a lot of trouble”.

Noting the minutes lacked critical information on whether they had been approved or amended, he stressed, “what we saw is not satisfactory.”

He advised both legal teams to hand in any other submissions to the tribunal by the end of business on Monday, March 6. (JB)