A worker was reduced to tears after the National Commission for Self Help suspended him without pay just mere weeks away from Christmas. 

Speaking to PSA Media on the issue was Public Services Association (PSA) Industrial Relations Officer, Marvin-Lee Davis. As stated by Davis, the management’s decision to suspend the employee without pay without due process was unjustified. According to him, the man was given a suspension letter on the 29, November, but he was not given due process or notice to answer his case. 

“Just a suspension letter because the CEO was frustrated that he could not prove that the worker had done anything wrong,” the Industrial Relations Officer noted. 

Davis in giving his opinion on the matter stated that it seemed that the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Elroy Julien had something personal against the employee who had worked at the National Self-Help Commission for the past 15 years. He stated that the charges brought against the employee were frivolous and flimsy. 

“Although it was investigated by the Commission’s management team, nothing was proven. They brought up charges on the employee that were months old. Charges that were never dealt with in real-time as it had happened.” Davis noted that this was not good industrial relations practice. 

He told PSA Media that when this was brought to the attention of CEO Julien the CEO made it clear, “Just take it to court.” He noted that the CEO was fully aware that by the time the matter was heard in the Industrial Court, the employee’s suspension would have been completed. 

Davis went on to say that employers understand the slowness of the court system in the country and many times exploit that to their advantage. 

“Now a man is worried about how he is going to provide for his family and children included during the upcoming Christmas season,” Davis noted while saying that it is just sad what employers put workers through sometimes. 

Avinash Maharajh, Second Vice President of the PSA noted that even though The National Commission for Self Help is a small organization, “there is a preponderance of industrial relations matters, a majority of which arise due to the high-handed approach of the CEO Julien who flagrantly flouts good industrial relations practice. Mr. Julien feels he is above the law and treats the workers at the Commission as his personal staff employed by the Commission to do his bidding, even to assist him in his personal business and if they raise objections he threatens harsh disciplinary penalties. He acts as judge, jury and executioner on most occasions and sometimes entangles his Human Resource Staff in the charade of a disciplinary process which typically have unsavory, unjust outcomes for the workers. There is an inordinately high percentage of industrial relations trade disputes at the Commission due to this CEO who exploits the molasses pace of the judicial system in the country.”