(Trinidad Express) Teachers have been blocked by the Industrial Court from resting and reflecting at home today (yesterday Monday) and at least until November 24.
The intended action was in continuing protest of the Government’s four per cent wage increase offer.
About 5 p.m. yesterday (Sunday) the Industrial Court granted the order restraining teachers “from commencing and/or continuing and/or taking industrial action including ‘resting and reflecting’ on the 26th day of September, 2022.”
The order was granted by a team of judges including Deborah Thomas-Felix, Herbert Soverall, Lawrence Achong and Gregory Rousseau.
It was also ordered that the Trini-dad and Tobago Unified Teachers Association (TTUTA) ought to direct or instruct its members to report for duty today, as they are required to do in the normal course of their employment.
The Office of the Attorney General, which filed the injunction on behalf of the Ministry of Labour, was expected to serve TTUTA a copy of this order, as well as the notice of application and affidavit in support, as the ruling had been made ex-parte.
The order will continue until further ordered, with the application to be returnable on November 24.
Efforts to reach TTUTA president Antonia DeFreitas were futile yesterday but the Express understands the association has complied with the court order and has directed teachers to report for work today.
DeFreitas was expected to release a video addressing members last night.
Teachers are also warned that they face penalties if they chose to disregard the order.
At a news conference yesterday evening at his Port of Spain office, Attorney General Reginald Armour said teachers were considered essential services in this country.
This, he made clear, was under Section 69. (1)(d) of the Industrial Relations Act 88.01, which laid out the penalties for such a breach, namely that persons may face a fine or a term of imprisonment up to three months.
Members of TTUTA were also warned that if they continued to call for or cause any industrial action, they can be liable on summary conviction to a fine of $10,000 or a term of imprisonment of 18 months.
“What this says is that under Section 63 of the Industrial Relations Act, a trade union taking or encouraging such action (for industrial action) will be termed an industrial relations offence and will incur penalties. This may include, as outlined by the legislation, the court may order the cancellation of its certificate of recognition. So that is one of the consequences that TTUTA will have to consider addressing when it comes to court on the next occurrence (November 24),” Armour said.
Questioned by the media, he said the court will have to make determinations between persons who were absent due to a genuine emergency or illness, or those who stayed home to protest.
“Whoever is going to rely on a sick leave certificate is going to have to produce that sick leave certificate in court to the employer. And how would the court deal with it, that will be for the court to determine. But one of the cautions that I received….is the doctors who are issuing the certificates will have to be aware of the terms of this order as well, because genuine significance is to be respected, not otherwise,” Armour warned.
In an internal memo last Friday, a TTUTA executive member had called on teachers to “reflect” today over stalled salary negotiations with the Chief Personnel Officer (CPO) Darryl Dindial, and, by extension, the Government.
On September 5, the first day of school for the 2022/2023 academic year, TTUTA had called for similar action, stating it was not happy with the state of negotiations.
According to TTUTA, on that day more than 70 per cent of the nation’s teachers stayed home, leading to many schools throughout the country calling for an end to classes early as there were no teachers to supervise students.
Only 3,234 of 30,100 teachers came out to work that day, according to the Ministry of Education.
Last Thursday some teachers also took half-day off on the advice of TTUTA.
