President general of the Oilfield Workers Trade Union (OWTU) Ancel Roget is urging the government to revisit the selection process for Judges in the Industrial Court and has suggested a selection process be introduced to better ensure the independence of administrators.
Roget made the remarks while speaking with reporters outside the Office of the Attorney General on Richmond Street, Port of Spain, on Friday morning.
Roget and members of the Joint Trade Union Movement (JTUM) visited the office to deliver a letter calling for the Attorney General Reginald Armour to bring amendments to the Industrial Relations Act to Parliament.
He said another area of concern for JTUM was the appointment process for Judges and other officials that comprise tribunals which rule on matters of industrial relations.
Roget said the perception of bias should be addressed by following a similar process used in the selection of Judges in the High Court or the Court of Appeal.
"If Cabinet as it is now appoints the chairman of a special tribunal and out of that comes a judgment adverse to workers, what do you think the perception would be when it holds the same position the government holds?
"We are also calling for them to be given security of tenure so that nobody would be singing for their supper.
"We do not want litigants going before the court, to have that perception those Judges are singing for their supper because they are hand-picked by the government of the day."
Asked if he felt that current negotiation matters should be suspended until changes to the selection process of Industrial Court Judges could be made official, Roget said it was a good suggestion as the perception of bias among the public was serious.
"Certain statements from the court and from that special tribunal pre-empts looking at the matter in a most favourable way, a most reasonable way, therefore the perception of bias is there because the process to select Judges for the court is a different process."
Secretary general of the National Trade Union Centre (NATUC) Michael Anisette agreed with Roget's stance.
"We are humans and we have seen it happen too often, when you are a politically appointed person, or when you belong to a political party and you are placed on a board, the issue of transparency, ethical behaviour and morality goes out the window.
"Those are things in a modern society we must pay attention to and those are things as citizens we must change."
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