BWIA to pay 3 engineers $100,000 Trinidad Guardian The Industrial Court has ordered BWIA International Airways Limited to pay a total of $100,000 to three of its workers, which it had sent on extended leave. Chairman of the Essential Services Division of the court, Cecil Bernard, and court member Judy Rajkumar-Gualbance ruled in favour of the Superintendents' Association, which represented the workers. J Manswell, a labour relations consultant, appeared for the association and Percy Cezair, an industrial relations consultant, for BWIA. BWIA sent three of its senior engineers, Curtis Barrow, Stephen Israel and Jefferson Joseph on vacation leave for extended periods. The first two were sent on May 10, 1999 and the other on June 11, 1999. In a 14-page ruling, the court said the circumstances in which the three were sent on leave suggest the existence of an uncomfortable working environment at the time."We hold that the company acted unreasonably towards each of the workers in sending them on leave without adequate notice after permitting them to accumulate an excessive amount of leave through having denied their application for leave year after year to meet the convenience of the Company," the court said. The court ordered BWIA to pay Barrow $40,000, Israel $25,000 and Joseph $35,000. The court ordered that the sum be paid before on or before tomorrow. The court said the award for Jefferson only takes into account the decision to send him on leave, and not to terminate his services. Barrow had testified that he got a letter from Kemchand Rampaul, vice- president, Maintenance and Engineering, which claimed his performance over the past eight months "has not been of the high quality expected". He was told to proceed on six months leave. Barrow said he was very surprised by Rampaul's comments since he was not advised of any unsatisfactory performance. Israel testified that he began working at BWIA in 1971. On May 12, 1999, he said Anthony Hosein, acting Manager, Engineering, said Rampaul said he must go on leave immediately. He stayed on leave until October 1999. Jefferson Joseph, the head of the association, said he was ordered to continue on leave until all his leave ended in 2000. He said in February 2000, his services were discontinued. Cezair submitted the company asked the three to proceed on leave because their leave had been accumulating to excessive levels. He said the request was not a penalty. The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site: Roj (Roger James) *************************************************** escape email mailto:ejames@escape.ca Trinbago site: http://www.tntisland.com CBSC Website http://www.tntisland.com/caribbeansocabrassconnection/ The Trinbago Site of the Week: (DMPI) http://www.paninstitute.com/ (Diego Martin Pan Institute) courtesy of Roj Trinbago Website & TnT Web Directory Roj's Trinbago Website: http://www.tntisland.com TnT Web Directory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************