Employment Rights Tribunal backlog needs attention too

Attorney General Dale Marshall was justly proud to report to the country earlier this week that policies adopted by the administration were resulting in a measurable reduction in the backlog of criminal cases in our law courts.

He declared that a major dent was made in serious cases, with more than 580 indictable matters — including 67 murder cases — being cleared in just an 18-month span.

This is the kind of disclosure that the public requires from the administrators of their justice system, which has been plagued with manifestly unjust delays.

In response to the scathing and justifiable criticism of the local court system, the Attorney General responded with a raft of measures designed to effect immediate and sustainable change. For a justice system that is slow to respond to the adjudication of criminal matters and the application of civil proceedings, we could quickly find that citizens may choose to develop their own methods of exacting justice.

In such situations, street justice may be swift but highly improper and can lead to a complete breakdown of society.

Addressing the Barbados Police Service’s annual conference earlier this week, he informed lawmen that since coming to office in 2018, the number of judges handling criminal trials had risen from just two to eight, while the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions had more than doubled the number of prosecutors, moving from eight to 17.

Marshall explained that the reforms were designed to ease the workload of police officers, cut delays in the system, and enhance the overall effectiveness of the justice system.

We applaud those efforts of the AG’s office to address a matter that had become a blot on the country’s image as an orderly society where the important systems work in the interest of citizens.

But before the administration gets too carried away, it must be reminded of the hundreds, if not more, of cases that remain choked in the non-functioning Employment Rights Tribunal (ERT).

What are the issues facing the ERT? What can be observed from the outside is the fact that whatever challenges are confronting the quasi-judicial body have been exacerbated following the departure of chairman and retired High Court Justice Christopher Blackman.

Incidentally, it was Justice Blackman who was most vocal in his criticism of the lack of attention given to resourcing the institution to the level where it could address the backlog that had developed. He was unapologetic in his complaints about the lack of a fixed home for the ERT and the indignity of the body being forced to move from pillar to post.

While a new home has been identified within the refurbished Supreme Court Buildings, which carry the name of legal luminaries Sir David Simmons and the late Sir Henry Forde, adjudication of cases remains stuck.

There have been moves to amend the legislation governing the ERT’s operation. Though there has been pushback from the Ministry of Labour against the view that the government was bending to pressure from the private sector, it was the Barbados Employers’ Confederation that complained the Employment Rights Act was too heavily tilted in favour of employees.

The ERT has also faced other challenges that have contributed to the delays, with some cases in the system for more than a decade. This is problematic given the reason why the ERT was established.

Adjudication of unfair dismissals was moved from the courts to the ERT, but it has now become a casualty of the very same bureaucracy that led to its creation in the first place. This cannot be allowed to continue when ordinary, poor workers who believe they have been unfairly dismissed by employers face further insult because of the absence of a properly functioning Tribunal.

Who benefits when the system fails to operate as it should? It certainly is not the workers who have lost their employment and their dignity. Employers who may want to take high-handed and unfair action by dismissing employees are well aware of the dysfunction that exists in the ERT. They know that cases may languish for years, and like victims of sexual assault, aggrieved workers may simply want to move on with their lives even when they have been wronged.