Union Wants Labour Laws Amended

Antigua St John's - The National Labour Board is proposing another amendment to the Labour Code, and trade unionist Dave Joseph wants the Minister of Labour, and, by extension, the Cabinet of Antigua & Barbuda, to adopt the "unanimous recommendation" of the National Labour Board with regard to amending section C: 44.

Joseph, as part of the Antigua Trades and Workers Union (AT&LU), said, “The National Labour Board is recommending that the following paragraph be added to the current C: 44 in the Labour Code:

C: 44 – (NEW LAST PARAGRAPH) Notwithstanding the above an employee may choose not to be transferred to a successor employer. In such an event the predecessor employer shall be obliged to pay the relevant severance pay to the affected employee.”

The amendment is in a clear reaction to last week’s Industrial Court ruling which went against the over 20 Rubis employees, formerly Chevron employees, who had demanded severance payment in keeping with the company’s change of ownership.

The court ruled that the employees failed to show sufficient evidence that the new ownership had any direct impact on their job security or stability.

“In light of the recent Industrial Court ruling with regards to the Chevron workers this amendment is absolutely necessary,” Joseph told Caribarena.com. Below is the C:44 from the antigua & Barbuda labor code:

c44. Severance pay is not payable if the employee's employment is terminated by an employer who has gone out of busines but, without any break in service, he is offered the same employment by a successor-employer:

Provided, however, that his tenure of employment, for subsequent severance purposes, dates from his original hir- ing by the first of a series of predecessor-employers; in which case the successor employer, in the event of a subsequent termination for redundancy, shall be responsible for the pay- ment of the employee's severance pay computed on the basis of his full tenure of employment by himself and all predecessor-employers.

Read more: http://www.caribarena.com/antigua/news/latest/97545-union-wants-labour-laws-amended.html#ixzz1NtyBPKrC