Ex-Industrial Court member awarded $3.1m

FORMER member of the Industrial Court Sam Maharaj has been awarded more than $3 million in compensation by the High Court for distress, inconvenience and pecuniary loss over the refusal of the Patrick Manning Cabinet to renew his contract in 2000.

In a written decision in which he called for a review of the way appointments and re-appointments are made to that court, Justice Frank Seepersad ordered compensation for Maharaj of $3.17 million.

In December 2016, five months after Manning’s death, the London-based Privy Council delivered a ruling in favour of Maharaj, a former general secretary of the All Trinidad Sugar and General Workers Trade Union, and sent his case back to the High Court to determine compensation.

In 2000 the labour minister was reported to have told Cabinet that Maharaj could neither “write, read nor speak properly and was not suited to be a member of the Industrial Court.” The Cabinet, acting on this representation, declined to reappoint Maharaj.

The Court of Appeal, in December 2014, ruled in Maharaj’s favour, but no compensation was awarded.

Maharaj, now 83, first brought the judicial-review action in January 2004.

He was represented by Senior Counsel Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj. Martin Daly, SC, appeared for Manning, who was still named as the defendant in the case.

A stay of the judge’s orders has been granted for 28 days for an appeal by the State.