Al-Rawi: Industrial Court upgrade after elections

ATTORNEY General Faris Al-Rawi said upgrade of the Industrial Court is in train but work will begin after the general election.

“I just want to get over the hump of the election and when we get back into office, I will complete the balance of work that is required,” Al-Rawi told Newsday

He is seeking a second term as the representative for San Fernando West for the People’s National Movement (PNM). Last week the Joint Trade Union Movement (JTUM) made a case for some attention to be paid to the Industrial Court, which the union claims is under-resourced and delaying justice for thousands of workers.

JTUM’s president Ancel Roget reminded the AG the Industrial Court was established for the purpose of dispensing justice for both employers and employees. He appealed for the filling of vacancies for clerical workers, transcriptionistz and judges and for bringing it on par with the High Court in terms of technology.

Al-Rawi said while no such comments or enquiries were made directly to his office by the union, he did engage the president of the Industrial Court in a conversation about the reform last year and she was very pleased with the recommendations.

“What I can say is that following the opening of the term for the Industrial Court last year, the president of the Industrial Court and I sat down and had a very fulsome conversation about the reform of the Industrial Court, in particular as it relates to the improvement of structures and resources.

“I can tell you that I shared with the president of the Industrial Court proposals to mirror the improvement in the administrative structure of the court along the lines we have undertaken at the judiciary.” He mentioned improvements to staffing, technology, accommodation and laws.

“You would recall we created the family and children division, the criminal division, the civil division, the e-filing, all of those things, including the provision of transcriptionists and methodologies for computerisation.

“I shared with the president of the Industrial Court that this was a project I wanted to also do for the Tax Appeal Court, which also falls under the AG’s office.”

Al-Rawi said he has already drafted improvements to the tax appeal structures, “and that the Industrial Court is on deck. I am confident that just after the general election, when we return to office, that I will be able to complete the reform structures that are in discussion and birth a very robust system for the benefit of all.”

He said far too often people believe it is just a matter of providing money, but it is not. “It is a matter of plant and machinery, people, processes and law and the formula that I had discussed, and we would have deeper consultation on it to replicate what we did in the judiciary’s reform. It is everything from making sure there is proper information technology, that they have additional personnel and that their processes are reformed."

He said it will also involve connecting court transcriptionists, using voice transcriptionists, using information technology and computerising. “So it is a much broader reform mechanism, and after election we are going to start rolling it out.”

“What I need to do right now, I will just get over the hump of the election and as we get back into office I will complete the balance of the work that is required.”