IDT awards sound and correct – Roberts
Published:Monday | May 19, 2025 | 12:08 AM
The overwhelming majority of awards of the Industrial Disputes Tribunal (IDT) brought before the courts, including the United Kingdom-based Privy Council, over the last 50 years, have been upheld as sound and correct.
Danny Roberts, deputy chairman of the IDT, who made the disclosure, argued that this is an endorsement of the adjudicating body’s dedication to the proposition of promoting social justice and good industrial relations practices at the workplace.
Addressing the Jamaica Employers’ Federation’s 41st annual business and workplace convention last Friday at the Jamaica Conference Centre, Roberts said the IDT’s mandate is not to determine the lawfulness of the employer’s action, which is reserved for the courts, but for the employer to prove that its action was fair and just in all the circumstances.
He said the courts have ruled that a matter brought before the IDT may have conformed to an employment contract but can still be scrutinised by the IDT to determine its fairness.
Roberts said 85 per cent of all dismissal cases brought before the IDT have been decided in favour of the worker, however, close to half of those cases involving workers fell under the classification of management. He added that 90 per cent of those cases have been endorsed by the employer’s representative.
The courts, he said, have argued that the establishment of the IDT in the settlement of disputes was to have it “removed as far as possible from the procedures of the courts of the land”, since the “judges are not trained in the fine art of trade union activities.”
In that regard, the senior IDT official told the JEF convention that the jurisdiction of the quasi-judicial body is limited by the Labour Relations and Industrial Disputes Act, its regulations and the Labour Relations Code. He added that the legislation mandates the IDT to adopt any provisions of the Code which it believes are relevant in determining matters relating to the fairness of dismissals and other relevant matters.
The IDT is celebrating its 50th anniversary under the theme, ‘Promoting Justice, Fairness and Workplace Harmony’.