Aretha Brathwaite is at a standstill trying to resolve a matter at the Labour Department.
The frustrated woman is claiming that her former employers, a South Coast hotel, have refused to attend the scheduled meetings and the Labour Department was being too passive about the issue.
“I was with that company for 12 years. For the past eight years or so there, I was doing two jobs – room attendant and supervisor – and only getting paid for room attendant,” she told the DAILY NATION.
Seeking compensation
Brathwaite said the combination of overwork, bullying, blatant disrespect, a lack of recognition and overall toxicity prompted her to resign in September last year, but she was now looking for compensation under constructive dismissal, for all the years she spent working at a higher level than she was being paid. However, she lamented that she was hitting roadblock after roadblock.
“I was forced out, forced to resign. I went to the Labour Department and they give me a lot of running around to get a date. Finally, when I get a date, on July 24 this year, the employer sent back a message saying they’re unavailable,” she said.
Constructive dismissal occurs where an employee is forced to leave a job against his or her will because of employer conduct. The reasons given under this stipulation must be serious, such as not being paid properly, not being paid at all or being suddenly demoted without just cause.
The Oxford Dictionary defines it as “the changing of an employee’s job or working conditions with the aim of forcing their resignation”.
Brathwaite said she was given another date for the parties to meet, August 27, but again her former employers were no-shows, and this was the last straw for her.
“They ain’t turn up, nothing. I turned up and when I went to the front desk, the lady at the Labour Department saying she got to wait on the
employer, that she can’t send out another date unless she get a call from the employer saying, ‘Well, they’re ready’. To me, it [should not] work so because if it was me that did something wrong and a date put up, I got to turn up, I can’t find excuses,” she said.
Complainant upset
The upset woman showed a letter from the Labour Department which read in part: “Where the Chief Labour Officer receives a complaint under Section 42, he shall as soon as practicable inquire into the matter and process the complaint for conciliation and referral to the tribunal.”
Brathwaite said the matter was then placed before the Employment Rights Tribunal (ERT), but when she went to the tribunal recently, she was told there was no date for her to appear.
“Now, everybody’s telling me the employer goin’ keep prolonging this, because after a year or so, the case can get throw out and I ain’t goin’ get nothing.
“I know people are goin’ say I resigned and left the job, but as I already explained, I had to, and now I am fighting for constructive dismissal. People don’t just up and leave a job so; it was the environment, so many other things,” she said.
Subsequently, Brathwaite informed that she had received another date to attend a conciliation meeting next week.
When contacted, Acting Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Labour Wayne Sobers said he would not directly comment on the matter as it was an ongoing issue, adding the ERT was an independent body. He did say, however, it was untrue cases were thrown out after a year. (CA)
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