By Emmanuel Joseph
Pedro Shepherd is now free to resume duties as a Government-paid teacher. Fellow teacher Alwyn Babb wants Government to clear his name and compensate him for the “conviction”.
They were both charged last year by the Ministry of the Public Service under General Order 3.18:1 for contesting the January 2022 general election and were suspended with half pay.
Shepherd, the former president of the Barbados Union of Teachers (BUT), has now had his charges dropped. He disclosed on Tuesday that on March 21, he was informed of the decision to scrap the charges during a disciplinary hearing chaired by the Director General for Human Resources in the Ministry Penelope Linton. The confirmation to Shepherd by Linton came exactly three weeks after a local High Court Judge ruled that the General Order 3.18:1 banning all public officers from actively participating in politics, was unconstitutional.
Shepherd said he now awaits the written decision of the ministry, which he expects once school resumes after the Easter vacation.
“They were supposed to write the President [Dame Sandra Mason], and send off a report so that whatever is to be done would be done so I can get reinstated [and] what money is due to me I would get. I haven’t heard anything,” he told Barbados TODAY. “The lawyer had written on behalf of us, but that was prior. That letter was March 8 and I was able to give the Director General a copy of the letter on March 21, the same day that we had the hearing. She had responded to that letter to state that the two of us would be hearing from them as soon as is practicable,” Shepherd said.
Meanwhile, Alwyn Babb, a second teacher who was actually found guilty and penalised by the ministry, also for running as a candidate in the same general election, said on Tuesday he is awaiting a written decision on reinstatement, compensation and the clearing of his name.
“There is no official word from the Ministry or the Public Service Commission. My lawyer wrote a letter and they said that they are going to get back to us when it is practicable. I don’t know what that means. That is all that they said,” he told Barbados TODAY.
“In my case, I was convicted and given a sentence. I actually suffered. I am actually waiting on them to say to me that I am reinstated. I am asking them for a return of salary.
“The sentence that was given, the suspension and being found guilty reached colleges in the United States of America where I liaise on behalf of athletes…I need that cleared up as well,” the teacher contended. “I am seeking compensation as well because I suffered financially,” he added.
Last April, both teachers were sent on half-pay leave for six months for allegedly breaching General Orders 3.18.1 and Paragraph 2 (h) of the Code of Discipline when they ran in the elections on behalf of the Democratic Labour Party (DLP). Babb contested the St Peter seat and Shepherd the St Michael South East constituency, both unsuccessfully. Shepherd, a Wilkie Cumberbatch Primary School teacher said the charges against him were for speaking at a political meeting at Haggatt Hall, being absent from school on the January 12 and 13 without excuse and another for insubordination – not attending a meeting to which he was invited by the Chief Education Officer. He said he had told her he could not attend.
In a matter recently decided in the High Court, the judge determined that the legal action brought against the State by temporary household facilitator in the Ministry of People Empowerment and Elder Affairs Natalie Murray was unconstitutional. She had filed a constitutional claim when she was informed that a disciplinary report was submitted regarding her appearance as a speaker on the political platform of the Barbados Labour Party on January 6 and 16, 2022 during the general election campaign. She was told that her actions were in breach of the General Orders and the Public Service Act Code of Discipline. But Justice Westmin James deemed the regulation inconsistent with the rights to freedom of expression and freedom of association enshrined in the Constitution of Barbados.
emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb
