The two teachers at the centre of a disciplinary hearing have been wrongly accused, says trade unionist Caswell Franklyn.
According to him the only thing teachers Alwyn Babb and Pedro Shepherd did was to exercise their constitutional right.
Both Babb and Shepherd were sent on half pay leave for six months last Wednesday for contesting the January 19, 2022, general election which they did on Democratic Labour Party (DLP) tickets.
They were charged with serious misconduct between January 3 and 19, 2022, when as public officers they participated in the 2022 general elections as DLP parliamentary candidates contrary to General Orders 3.18.1 and in contravention of paragraph 2 (h) of the Code of Discipline.
However, Franklyn, the general secretary of the Unity Workers Union (UWU) said having done some research he had come to the conclusion that the two teachers had committed no crime.
He said the only public officers prohibited from taking part in elective politics were judges, the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Auditor General.
Franklyn explained that prior to November 30, 1966, there was an absolute prohibition against all public officers and employees contesting elections for the House of Assembly.
He said that was changed at Independence when the Constitution removed that restriction on all but three categories of public servants.
“The 1966 Constitution at Section 44 provided that no person shall be qualified to be elected as a member of the House of Assembly who holds or is acting in the office of a Judge, the Director of Public Prosecution or the Auditor-General. It is remarkable that even with the lifting of those restrictions by the Constitution, public officers and public service managers continue to be misguided by the former rules to this day,” Franklyn said in a press release.
The UWU general secretary said in 1974, Government, mindful of section 44 of the Constitution, saw the need to restrict other public workers from contesting parliamentary elections and made an amendment to the Constitution to achieve this.
“Effective January 1, 1975, the date of the commencement of the 1974 Constitution (Amendment) Act, Parliament took the power onto itself to set out, by ordinary legislation, which other public servants could not participate in parliamentary elections. To date Parliament has not passed any such law. So as far as the Constitution of Barbados is concerned, there are only three holders of public office that cannot contest parliamentary elections, namely: Judge, Director of Public Prosecutions and Auditor-General.
“The General Orders were first made in 1970 by the Rt. Excellent Errol Barrow and revised in 1997 by Prime Minister Owen Arthur. I think that we all can agree that neither Errol Barrow nor Owen Arthur was in Parliament and therefore, could not make any rules to override a provision of the Constitution. It is therefore my view that the teachers who contested the elections did nothing more than exercise their constitutional rights,” Franklyn maintained.
randybennett@barbadostoday.bb
