The Registration, Recognition and Certification Board (RRCB) is one of three separate institutions created by the Industrial Relations Act. Given the provision of Section 34 of the act and the interpretation of former chief justice Michael de la Bastide; the RRCB is the only and sole institution to determine whether an employee is a worker within the meaning of the act, and whether a worker is a legitimate member of a trade union.
Since Article 51, of the act, allows any trade union to report the existence of trade disputes to the Ministry of Labour on behalf of its members, it is only fair that trade unions must establish that the people they seek to represent are indeed bona fide and legitimate members.
The act, therefore, requires an aggrieved employee to be a member in good standing in the reporting trade union and this must be verifiable by the RRCB.
It has become quite commonplace that following a trade union's report of the existence of a trade dispute to the Ministry of Labour, the employer or its representative claims that the dispute is not properly before the minister on the basis that:
1. The aggrieved employee is not a worker within the meaning of the act.
2. The person is not a member in good standing of the reporting union.
If either one of the claims is established, the union's report of a trade dispute will automatically become null and void. However, since the RRCB is the sole and only authority to determine these matters, the Ministry of Labour is required to issue the unresolve certificate as the matter remains unresolved, then simultaneously forward a formal referral to the RRCB for its determination on both worker status or membership in good standing.
The determination of whether a member is in good standing is a simple affair and only requires the board examiners to inspect the books of the trade union to arrive at a determination of fact, as to whether the work is a financial member in the eyes of the law. In order to accomplish this, the RRCB normally relies on the procedure laid out in its Practice Note #2.
This brings to mind a recent judgment of the High Court in a judicial review application CV2020-01464 filed by Sanctuary Workers' Trade Union and one of its members who was dismissed from a leading bank. The application was against a determination of the RRCB in a matter of a referral from the Minister of Labour relating to membership in good standing.
The act in section 34(3) requires among other things that a registered trade union must maintain accurate accounting records consistent with sound accounting practices and standards. In this case, the union did not maintain a bank account and for this reason only, the RRCB, consistent with its Practice Note #2, held that it could not ascertain the financial good standing of the purported member and accordingly made an adverse determination.
Justice Joan Charles held that Section 34 only required the trade union to employ sound accounting practices and did not expressly require the union to operate a bank accoun
