Get the Apps
Home / Top Featured Article / In landmark case, civil servants shielded from automatic firing for legal infractions In landmark case, civil servants shielded from automatic firing for legal infractions
Article by May 5, 2021
The Supreme Court has declared unlawful, the automatic dismissal of public workers on the basis of criminal convictions as it ruled on Monday in two separate decisions with wide-ranging implications for employment relations in Government.
On Monday, Madame Justice Shona Griffith delivered landmark judgments in cases brought by Wilbert Lynch v the Chief Personnel Officer, the Public Service Commission and the Attorney General and Kenrick Carmichael v. the Attorney General et al, which now place tremendous scrutiny on the way disciplinary proceedings are conducted.
The days of public workers being automatically dismissed for recording criminal convictions while still employed by Government were abruptly brought to an end. This is because on Monday, the Supreme Court ruled that the process was unlawful, following its deliberations in the matter of Wilbert Lynch against the Chief Personnel Officer, the Public Service Commission and the Attorney General. The matter, which was first lodged in 2012, was finally ruled …
Court ruling has implications for magistrates’ action
Article by May 5, 2021
The days of persons being convicted of criminal offences and having their records immediately expunged in the Magistrates’ Courts could well be a thing of the past, based on a powerful precedent set in the Supreme Court on Monday.
In fact, the recent judgment suggests that the magistrates who delivered such rulings may well have been acting outside of their power.
In handing down a judgement regarding the treatment of public officers facing disciplinary proceedings, Madame Justice Shona Griffith rejected arguments from two separate claimants who were represented by Hal Gollop Q.C. in association with Saffron Griffith on one hand and Gregory Nicholls on the other.