By Barbara Gayle, Staff ReporterTHE JAMAICA Flour Mills (JFM) Limited, Rockfort, Kingston, came under judicial fire yesterday, when the Court of Appeal handed down a landmark decision that three of its workers who were made redundant in 1999 should be reinstated.
"The employees' dismissals in this case was an outstanding example of man's inhumanity to man and need not have been so," the Court of Appeal said in the main judgment written by Justice Clarence Walker. It was the court's finding that the JFM breached the Labour Relations Code when they made the workers redundant, without prior consultation between the employers and the National Workers Union (NWU), which is the trade union representing the employees.
Two of the workers had been with the company for 13 years and the other for 28 years. The court said yesterday that when considered against the background of the length of service of the employees, the JFM's action amounted in effect to "shock treatment". The court said that was the very mischief which the Code was designed to eliminate.
Clive Dobson, president of the NWU, described the court's ruling as "a cornerstone judgment" and a significant achievement for the labour movement. He pointed out that the Industrial Disputes Tribunal (IDT) was strongly criticised by several organisations and businessmen when it ordered reinstatement for the workers. He said he was happy that the Tribunal was exonerated by the court's ruling.
The workers Michael Campbell, Simon Suckie, and Ferron Gordon who had attended court yesterday with Vincent Morrison, island supervisor of the NWU, said they were "delighted" with the outcome of the case. They have been off the job since they were made redundant because of JFM's legal battle to set aside the order for reinstatement.
Ransford Braham, one of the lawyers representing the JFM, said it was likely that the JFM would be taking the case to the United Kingdom Privy Council.
CONFORMED WITH LAW
The JFM claimed that it acted in strict conformity with the Em-ployment Termination and Re-dundancy Payments Act. It said it did not notify the workers or their union of the decision to make them redundant, because it feared notification would have led to sabotage of the company's plant.
It was the Court of Appeal's finding that "on this occasion" there was no reason to apprehend the likelihood of sabotage.
Two of the workers had accepted their severance pay and the JFM claimed that, in so doing, they waved their legal rights to reinstatement in their jobs. The court held that "there was no evidence of a settled intention in either of them to abandon his legal right to reinstatement in his job". The workers said they took the money because of compelling economic reasons.
After the workers received the letters on August 13, 1999 informing them that their employment was terminated that same day by reason of redundancy they, along with their union, took the matter to the Industrial Disputes Tribunal. A hearing was held into the dispute and the Tribunal handed down an award on October 10, 2000 that "it was unfair, unreasonable and unconscionable for the company to effect the dismissals in the way that it did. It showed very little if any concern for the dignity and human feelings of the workers." The three workers said they wished to be reinstated and the Tribunal ruled that they were unjustifiably dismissed and should be reinstated.
The JFM took the case to the Supreme Court seeking an order to quash the Tribunal's ruling. The Full Court, comprising Chief Justice Lensley Wolfe, Justice Neville Clarke and Justice Horace Marsh, upheld the Tribunal's award and dismissed the JFM's motion.
The JFM appealed against the Full Court's ruling and its appeal was dismissed yesterday by the Court of Appeal comprising the Hon. Ian Forte, President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Paul Harrison and Justice Clarence Walker.
