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Wrongfully dismissed 14 years ago, court cuts pay award to UGI manager

Published:Sunday | July 26, 2020 | 12:12 AM

It’s been 14 years since her firing by United General Insurance Company Limited, UGI, over which the appellate court has now ruled that Marilyn Hamilton is to be compensated a year’s salary for wrongful dismissal.

It’s better than the month’s pay that the insurance company gave her, but it is substantially less than the three year’s salary the Supreme Court had awarded over six years ago.

UGI now operates as Advantage General Insurance Company. The company founded by Neville Blythe was sold to Michael Lee-Chin’s company AIC Barbados in 2006 which rebranded the company the following year. Then in 2012, Advantage was acquired by NCB Capital Markets, a company also ultimately controlled by Lee-Chin. It was sold by NCB Cap last year to a consortium led by Sagicor Investments Jamaica Limited.

Hamilton, who was UGI’s information systems manager, was accused of putting the company at risk and terminated in July 2006, following an unexpected shut-down of the email system, which UGI blamed on the introduction of pirated software – a claim the manager denied.

Hamilton, who had been employed for more than six years, sued UGI for wrongful dismissal, and also claimed she was entitled to pension payments. The Supreme Court ruled in her favour in December 2013.

The judgment award, which was later determined by a different judge, was challenged on appeal by UGI.

In the appellate decision written by Justice Hilary Phillips on behalf of three member panel that included Justice Patrick Brooks and Justice Marva McDonald-Bishop, and issued at the top of this month, the court held that the period applied by UGI in calculating notice pay for Hamilton was unreasonably short and so constituted a breach of the contract of employment and amounted to wrongful dismissal.

The appellate court affirmed that the 12 months’ notice pay awarded by the unnamed Supreme Court judge was reasonable, but rejected the finding that Hamilton should be awarded two additional years’ compensation.

Justice Phillips held that the Supreme Court wrongly determined that Hamilton was entitled to her employer’s portion of the contribution to the pension scheme during the period of her employment and the one-year notice period.

That was because the pension scheme was not operated by UGI, but by a third party, and Hamilton had elected not to wait to take the company’s contribution which was available to her upon reaching retirement age.

The Court of Appeal modified the Supreme Court order to allow for damages for wrongful termination for 12 months, inclusive of motor vehicle upkeep, gas allowance and lunch subsidy, with 19.52 per cent interest from date of dismissal at end-July 2006 to date of the judgment in December 2013, and then at 6 per cent until payment. It also limited the payment for health and life insurance benefits to 12 months.

Lord Anthony Gifford QC, who along with attorneys Conrad George and Andre Sheckleford represented UGI, said he has no instructions whether the insurance company would pursue further appeals. Attorneys Captain Paul Beswick, Angel Beswick-Reid and Georgette Buckley represented Hamilton.

mcpherse.thompson@gleanerjm.com