Orville Taylor | School ‘dissed Miss’

Avoid being half-souls when dealing people’s lives and careers. Moreover, not because you have the power to do something, does it mean that you have the authority to do so. This distinction was made to the head of a major educational institution, while wincing before the facts, lied through clenched teeth which couldn’t ‘shet’.

My response to him was that all PhDs were not idiots, and ultimately, the unfair treatment would catch up on him, and the country would know that he fell in the category mentioned in paragraph one.

As I said in last week’s column, sometimes when people are in the departure chair of their careers, they can grab the opportunity and simply do the right thing, without worrying about political face saving. However, sometimes, having succeeded in doing wrong, and having a cast of enablers with stuffed mouths which impede their diction for years, they do not take heed.

Some six years ago, against popular sentiment and ostensibly fuelled by bad blood, relations between the principal and a well-loved veteran teacher at Black River High School, Sandra Delapenha, led to an ill-advised termination of employment.

Finally, after more than six years of ‘sufferation’, not only has she been vindicated, but reinstatement has been ordered. Her former principal and the teachers’ review tribunal also have unhatched eggs on their faces.

ANNOYING

The sequence of events is particularly annoying, because all of the knowledge existed at the time at the fingertips of the decision-makers, which would have prevented this unfortunate piece of history. Truth is, too often people are so caught up in their own egos, feelings and narrow purposes, that they simply do not do what is right. More important, is that teachers are supposed to be exemplars of what is good or right about us. Thus, when teachers blunder, or worse, wilfully do things that their consciences tell them that is wrong, they must be ‘beaten with many stripes’.

More than a decade ago, then Minister of Education Ronald Thwaites revealed that 80 per cent of disciplinary cases brought to review were overturned. More disturbingly, the overwhelming majority were reversed because of improper procedures.

What makes this even insidious, is that teachers are members of the bargaining unit represented by the Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA) and all ought to know better.

In 1990, then president of the JTA Dorothy Raymond along with Wilfred Titus, executive member and former founding principal of Pembroke Hall high, approached me at the Ministry of Labour with a view to improving the overall industrial relations and dispute resolution procedures within the organisation and profession.

Countless hours were dedicated to the preparation of training manuals. Thereafter, three wholesome seminars were conducted; one each in Montego Bay, Mandeville, and Kingston.

It is difficult to imagine, that in the professional lifetime of currently active academics, such institutional knowledge could be lost.

As made last week in my remarks at the Bursars’ Association of Jamaica conference in Hanover, we have to confront the fact that we are still deeply influenced by the experiences of plantation slavery, and many of us are wont to perpetuate the cycle of abuse which our forefathers faced and which we may have encountered in the earlier part of our professional careers. While it may take perhaps several more lifetimes, for the legacy of slavery to be purged, if at all, rules and procedures, anchored on fundamental human rights, the Constitution, and general professional guidelines, when followed, mitigate the vagaries of our malice and feelings.

LONG GONE PAST

We have long gone past the historical epoch, when a person’s job is simply contractual exchange. The courts have long held that one’s employment becomes real property within which an individual is invested. Therefore, when it is removed from him, there must be justification and/or compensation.

For this reason the Employment Termination and Redundancy Payment Act now covers the public sector, when redundancies take place.

Beyond that, inasmuch as the Labour Relations and Industrial Disputes Act does not have scope to handle dismissal and disciplinary cases, for public sector workers, the respective services commissions and tribunals are still bound by the same basic principles when it comes to disciplinary matters.

Binding guidelines for all displayed procedures are summarised in what I called ‘the rules of natural justice.’ Very simple, but far too often violated, they comprise the following elements; i) the individual must be made fully aware of the charges before him, ii) he must be then given an opportunity to respond in a timely fashion to these charges, iii) also, he must have the right to be represented, often by an attorney but not necessarily, and iv) if the charges are established against him, he must have the right to appeal to a level comprising individuals not previously involved.

Importantly, where disciplinary codes exist or are implied, there is the underlying norm is the ‘last straw’ or ‘snowball’ effect. In essence, workers are not generally terminated for first or minor offences. Moreover, if ignored or not even reprimanded, a pattern of negative behaviour does not amount to a serious offence, unless it is first brought to the attention of the worker and a warning or reprimand instituted.

Doubtless, individual workplaces may have variations around these guidelines, but there must be better; not worse. To assist employers or their representatives sections 20 to 22 of the Labour Relations code 1976 elucidate in a detailed fashion the approach to take.

In 21st century Jamaica, no administrator of public corporations, government departments, or anybody paid from the public purse, can claim ignorance. Board chairmen and principals have been particularly guilty of these travesties and they occur far too often.

In a country where there is a clear correlation between unfair labour practices and social pathologies, teachers and administrators of schools have to walk the talk, because students learn not just what is taught in the classroom, but what their teachers, board members, bursars and other administrators do.

Dr Orville Taylor is senior lecturer at the Department of Sociology at The University of the West Indies, a radio talk-show host, and author of ‘Broken Promises, Hearts and Pockets’. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and tayloronblackline@hotmail.com