I listened with extreme bemusement to a news report where business owner Frank Mouttet and lawyer Derek Ali criticised the Industrial Court.
Frank was reported as saying that the court contributed to low levels of productivity by its judgments. I almost rolled off my chair in laughter. The real reason that these criticisms were made can be attributed to the poor industrial relations practices of many business owners.
It hit home for Frank Mouttet & Co back in 2002, when a relative of mine was awarded compensation for wrongful dismissal from this company by the Industrial Court. Since that time, the industrial relations climate changed in this company, as the success by its former employee at the court, meant it could not be business as usual in regard to the treatment of workers.
So let’s be frank, Frank Mouttet is clearly no fan of a judicial system which in this particular case brought the insightful glare of its jurisprudence to bear on certain ill practices within his own organisation and which acted to ensure that the principles enshrined in the Industrial Relations Act of Trinidad and Tobago were observed and enforced.
Now that’s productivity for you, in terms of social and economic justice.
Michael Jattan
Diego Martin