Ex-UTT lecturer loses claim for $300k

A former lecturer at the University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT) has lost his claim for money he said was owed to him for the remainder of his contract after he was fired because of funding cuts to the university.

Rabindranath Ramsaroop, a physicist with a PhD in engineering, whose three-year contract was renewed in September 2016, sued the university for $327,676.75 after he was fired as senior instructor, design and manufacturing systems, in May 2018.

He was told his fixed-term contract was being terminated by reason of redundancy.

Ramsaroop received $152,771.16 in severance on retrenchment based on his number of years’ service, and his full salary for May-July 2018, as opposed to the one-month salary provided for in the contract.

He argued his contract was terminated some 14 months prematurely.

However, in its defence, the UTT said it was forced to reduced expenditure and restructure its organisation because of reduced budgetary allowance for the 2016/2017 and 2017/2018 academic years. It also argued that the reduced allocation led to the retrenchment of 58 members of academic staff in 2018 and they were told of the challenges faced and of the need to restructure/reallocate resources.

It added that the reduction in the budgetary allocation due to economic factors beyond its control resulted in the termination of Ramsaroop’s contract, which provided that the university could terminate if there were “unforeseen changes in operational requirements.” UTT maintained Ramsaroop’s contract was properly terminated.

In an oral decision delivered at the Hall of Justice, Port of Spain, Justice Frank Seepersad held there was no dispute that the contract provided for termination at any time due to “unforeseen changes.”

He said while budgetary allocations were never an issue when Ramsaroop was hired in 2006, the first time the university encountered problems was in 2016/2017 and it did not have control over the sums approved by Parliament.

“The public would have been aware of the state of the economy and the general decline in oil and gas. It cannot be said the UTT could have predicted the quantum of funding it would receive, and when faced with the reality of a reduced budgetary allocation, its survival depended on making necessary adjustments.

He said this could fall within the rubric of “unforeseen changes.”

The termination was necessary for the operational requirements of the university, given its funding issues, the judge said, adding that it was “unfortunate but necessary.”

“It cannot be said it was unjustified to terminate.

“The court is of the view that the university handled the situation with empathy and compassion,” he said as he pointed out that it did not have to invoke provisions of the Retrenchment and Severance Benefits Act, since it did not apply to fixed-term contracts, but did so, enabling Ramsaroop to receive a severance payment.

“It was a gratuitous position adopted by UTT, which was under no legal obligation to pay,” he said, adding that Ramsaroop benefitted from this gratuitous application of the act, based on the number of his years of service.

After dismissing Ramsaroop’s claim, saying it was “completely devoid of merit,” he ordered him to pay reduced costs because of the lack of clarity of what “unforeseen changes” meant in the contract.

Ramsaroop is now an assistant professor at the University of the Commonwealth Caribbean in Jamaica.

He was represented by attorney Glen Bhagwansingh. Attorney Stephen Singh represented UTT.