GUARDIAN Shared Services Ltd (GSSL) – a subsidiary of the Guardian Group of Companies – has been ordered to pay $1 million to a former assistant whose position was made redundant in 2020.

On October 2, 2020, the worker was served a notice of retrenchment dated August 19. The worker has asked that her name not be published given the current crime situation in TT.

Her dismissal was taken up by the Banking, Insurance and General Workers Union (Bigwu) which argued before the Industrial Court that her termination was oppressive and unfair.

It maintained the company used a “sham redundancy” to get ride of an “undesired employee” and that the use of redundancy as a pretext for getting rid of an employee, is not an option in TT.

The union’s evidence was that the worker was called into a meeting with the Group’s vice president of Human Capital and Transformation, on August 7, when she was told her position was going to be eliminated.

She was invited to apply for any available or suitable positions in the company but it was concluded she did not possess the right skill-set for any other positions.

However, the union said, the worker believed the real reason for her post being made redundant as part of an alleged departmental restructuring, was because she had complained about the conduct of a senior manager. The company maintained her dismissal was due to redundancy.

In its ruling, the court – comprising Melvin Daniel, Bindimattie Mahabir (who delivered the decision) and Jillian Joy Bartlett-Alleyne – held that there was merit to the worker’s claim of unfair dismissal “rendering the employer’s action as harsh and oppressive.”

“By way of amplification, the dismissal was a complete sham; that dismissal was pre-determined; void of a valid honest reason and there was nothing the worker could say to prevent or delay her dismissal. The statutory definition of a redundancy has not been made out.”

In the ruling, the court said in determining a fair and appropriate compensation, they factored into their deliberation the worker’s years of dedicated service (of just over 15 years), her age at the time of dismissal and the manner in which she was let go, “particularly in a global pandemic.”

“There was simply no humanity shown to the worker who knew the quality of her living must fall, given the costs associated with a dismissal, harsh and oppressive as it were.”

At the hearing before the Industrial Court, both sides filed evidence and arguments but the court only heard from the worker as the company said it could not file witness statements since their material witnesses no longer worked for the company.

In its order, the Industrial Court gave GSSL until May 29 to pay $1 million to the worker. The court’s decision was delivered on Tuesday.

The union was represented by its labour relations officer Hayden Hernandez while attorney Derek Ali represented Guardian Shared Services Ltd.