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\u201cI spoke with so many different persons asking them, from the highest level of government, the highest level of state administration asking them to drop the case because I knew the facts were not with them, the law was not with them but they don\u2019t want to listen to reason or to law,\u201d Jomo Thomas told Asbert News Network exclusively on the heels of his chambers\u2019 most recent Courtroom victory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Earlier this month Madame Justice Esco Henry ruled against the State and announced \u201can important decision pertaining to official highhandedness and governmental overreach, in the case Public Service Union and the Permanent Secretary of National Security, the Chief Personnel Officer and Public Service Commission,\u201d Thomas shared via Facebook. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The veteran lawman described as \u201ca serious tendency to erode Union rights and workers\u2019 rights\u201d recent events that has pitted the government against members of its civil service. These challenges have led to more High Court successes for the claimants, championed by their sundry Unions, than for the offending arm of government, often times the Public Service Commission. Thomas referenced his latest Plain Talk article, \u201cMy Party, Right or Wrong,\u201d as published in The Vincentian Newspaper last Friday, in support of his view that the government\u2019s prolonged hardheadedness would be its continual downfall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI gave the example of when Otto Sam was first transferred and then fired and then I gave the example of the Unions standing with the 3 teachers who participated in the elections of 2010 as candidates for the New Democratic Party. The Otto Sam case and the case with Daniel, Johnson and Thomas were Teachers\u2019 Union led cases. The Public Service Union against the Public Service Commission that was on an issue of record keeping and seniority and so on. The Union drove that and the Union won that but we were not the attorneys on that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAnd then there\u2019s this case with Jamali Whyte. He\u2019s a young man, he has his family \u2013 he has a child and his woman for many years and the State essentially wanted to lift him out of that situation to bring him up here on the mainland to work; and all of that was done in the period of week. We challenged that. We judicially reviewed that decision and as you saw the Court ruled in our favor.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Not only are the Unions judiciously exercising their roles, in tandem with the local Courts, as \u201cbulwarks against\u201d workers\u2019 rights violations but they are also being vindicated by the various judgments, Thomas opined. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe State is acting in a very arrogant fashion. I distinctly recall when Otto Sam was transferred, I told the requisite people in authority that the government is acting illegally, is acting improperly and will not prevail in the transfer case. Justice Thom who is now on the Court of Appeal found that the government had acted illegally and they reversed that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThen the government proceeded to fire Otto Sam and I told the requisite authorities that the dismissal case is an even easier case to fight than the transfer case and Otto Sam will win it, so said so done. The Court found that in firing him the government acted illegally and improperly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAnd this case where the PSU sued the government in the name of some public workers on the issue of promotions and seniority and so on, Justice Henry found that the promotions were not done in keeping with the regular procedures. She found that the promotions and seniority system were procedurally improper, she found that the whole system was not being run properly and called on the PSU to do a whole series of things which they have not done,\u201d he told ANN.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thomas again stressed that he reached out to a host of potential intercessors \u201cfrom\u2026 the highest level of state administration\u201d as he tried, to no avail, to negotiate an out of Court resolution to the issues confronting Jamali Whyte as represented by the PSU. He sees, instead of penitent reform, \u201ca certain arrogance in terms of the ways in which the State proceeds to deal with citizens.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Which he posits, \u201cis done with scant regard for the law. In many cases absolute disregard for the law and that\u2019s why each time the government is challenged on the point the government loses. It is unfortunate because it shows that they are not learning anything from these cases. And all they have to do is to go and read the decisions to see when you have to do something else, ensure that your actions comport with the previous decisions of the Court. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBut the guys don\u2019t want to do that they don\u2019t care and as a result they get piss on their head each time because once the matter is reviewed the Court is going to look at the law, at the procedure and the Court is going to conclude that they are operating improperly and they would lose the case.\u201d Thomas shared with ANN.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
JP.Schwmon.Vincy@Gmail.Com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cI spoke with so many different persons asking them, from the highest level of government, the highest level of state administration asking them to drop the case because I knew the facts were not with them, the law was not with them but they don\u2019t want to listen to reason or to law,\u201d Jomo Thomas<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":10207,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-local-news"],"yoast_head":"\n