Covid19 lockdown saw fewer Industrial Court cases filed

LOCKDOWN measures implemented in March in response to the coronavirus pandemic saw a decrease in the number of new cases filed at the Industrial Court.

President of the court Deborah Thomas-Felix explained that for three months, the court and the Ministry of Labour were closed because of the covid19 lockdown.

As a result, for September 15, 2019-September 14, 2020, a total of 905 cases were filed, which was 505 cases fewer than for 2018-2019.

During the past term, the court disposed of 707 cases. The disposal rate of cases was 78.1 per cent, which was 17 per cent higher than the previous term when the disposal rate was 60.9 per cent.

Thomas-Felix also said there were 240 judgments delivered for the year, 94 of them when the court reopened in June-August.

She admitted, however, that the court continued to face challenges for space, human resource and financial resources to manage its operations.

She also spoke of the measures put in place for court operations during the pandemic, revealing that while the court has been using the Zoom platform, it will soon begin using Microsoft Teams software in two weeks’ time, but bemoaned that the court does not have the resources, or the equipment, to facilitate requests for open-court hearings and conciliation to be conducted remotely.

In June, the court started a pilot project for hearing case-management conferences remotely, and Thomas-Felix said according to a survey of stakeholders, there was encouraging feedback of 23.4 per cent giving an excellent rating; 54.7 per cent “very good” and 20.3 per cent “good,” while 1.6 per cent thought the experience was fair.

She said there was a paradigm shift at the workplace globally, with more and more people embracing new work methods and employers embarking on new training and reskilling policies.

“One such working method is remote work. In TT since the pandemic there have been meetings between trade unions and employers to discuss the myriad issues which have arisen at workplaces. As a consequence, several employers have embraced remote work and they have allowed their employees to work outside the traditional office environment,” she said.

Thomas-Felix hoped social partners come together to identify the modalities of remote work in TT “in order to have a smooth transition to this new working method.”

She also suggested they may need to examine issues such as who absorbs the cost of electricity, internet charges, workstations, among other things, and what measures were in place to address the general security and integrity of the job such as cyber security.

“The main take away from this crisis is that the workplace, and the world of work as we know it, have changed forever and that employers and trade unions play a key role in assisting workers to navigate these uncharted territory and in assisting to stabilise the labour market.

“Social dialogue at the tripartite level where government is involved is critical and allows for policy engagement and policy making through the National Tripartite Advisory Board,” she said.

She ended her virtual address by urging the public to follow the public health guidelines to save lives, and urged dialogue.

“As we look to the future, the reality is, for us to survive the gathering storms on the economic and health front, stakeholders at all levels and in all sectors need to engage in a sustained collective effort to stabilise the labour market and to strive to maintain our current economic and social gains.

“This engagement will be testimony to genuine social dialogue and a test to the strength of our social partnerships. This is the time to rise to the occasion, as we have done in past crises, and we no doubt will continue to do so, as we draw inspiration from our national watchwords, discipline, production and tolerance.”