Government is moving to strengthen the Employment Rights Act to improve the efficiency of the Employment Rights Tribunal (ERT), the Minister of Labour said Tuesday.
Plans are also in the works to employ a second full-time chairman to ensure the smooth running of the ERT and erase the backlog of over cases currently plaguing the Tribunal, he added.
Minister of Labour and Social Relations Colin Jordan appeared before lawmakers at the 2021/2022 Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure to justify to his parliamentary colleagues the ministry’s allocation of $7,237,600 in the next financial year beginning April 1.
The minister explained the changes that were coming to the Employment Rights Act.
Jordan said: “One relates to issues coming out of the work of the Tribunal and how it can be made better so that particular judgments and any enforcement of payments and sanctions [are made.] If the payments are not made on time, that is another phase and that is a phase that we are to commence and the third phase is to make rules for the working of the Tribunal.
“The Employment Rights Act was put into force but they’ve been no rules put into force and just like we have spent quite a bit of time dealing with the Safety and Health At Work Act, getting those regulations sorted out…the Employment Rights Act also needs rules for the operation of the Tribunal and that is another phase of the work we are actually about to embark on.”
The minister maintained that the ERT had a very heavy workload and its rulings were subject to be heard as far as the Caribbean Court of Justice.
He said this meant additional resources had to be provided to the ERT and adequate remuneration had to be paid to its members.
Jordan declared: “The Tribunal does a lot of work. The ERT is not like every other Tribunal. This Tribunal is a Tribunal that will have to defend cases in a Caribbean Court of Justice, so the judgments that are written are not simple judgments. There are judgments that have to stand the scrutiny of the highest court of our land.
“There is going to be a need for expansion of resources. We’ve not been reacting, we’ve already put some plans in place and we’ve added some people resources, we’ve added some equipment resources so at this point we can actually have three Tribunals operating simultaneously.
“But two of our chairs have private practice as well and so one of the things we have to consider given the increase in workload and the potential for further increase, it means that we may have to look at having one or more being full-time but we also have to look very seriously at the remuneration of our chairs particularly because their work is deep and extensive.”
Acting Chief Labour Officer Claudette Hope-Greenidge revealed a backlog of 206 cases before the ERT.
Over the course of the next five to six weeks the plan is to meet every Thursday and have at least two hearings per Thursday during that period, she told lawmakers.
She said she was satisfied that cases were being heard with increasing regularity in recent times. (RB)
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