Suspended HEART/NSTA staffers in limbo
After 9 months, still no timeline for when internal probe of affected employees to end
Published:Thursday | October 19, 2023 | 12:12 AMEdmond Campbell/Senior Parliamentary Reporter
Nearly nine months have expired since five employees at the HEART/NSTA Trust were suspended by the management of the agency, and to date, the leadership of the training entity is unable to give a definitive timeline as to when its internal probe of the affected staff members will be completed.
Since the five workers were sent on leave last February, the management of HEART/NSTA Trust has not stated publicly why it took that action.
During a meeting of Parliament’s Public Administration and Appropriations Committee (PAAC) yesterday, Dr Taniesha Ingleton, managing director of the HEART/NSTA Trust, faced tough questions about the investigative process being pursued by the agency.
Fitz Jackson, member of parliament for St Catherine Southern, who sits on the PAAC, expressed shock over the period of time that the workers have been off the job to facilitate an investigation.
Jackson reasoned that “justice delayed is justice denied”.
He contended that nine months for an internal investigation is “awfully long”.
The opposition lawmaker argued that having the workers languishing on special leave without any definitive completion timeline for the process could be viewed as a form of punishment.
However, Ingleton told the committee that the policy of HEART/NSTA Trust allows for a worker under investigation to be on special leave for a maximum of nine months.
“They would have been on special leave since February of this year, and that is to expire October 30th. We are not yet there,” she declared.
“The internal disciplinary policy speaks to a timeline. They are not outside of the timeline. The nine months have not expired. They are within the nine months per the disciplinary policy,” she stated.
PROCESS NOT COMPLETE
Retired army Lieutenant General Rocky Meade, permanent secretary in the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM), told committee members that the nine months mentioned by Ingleton was the period for which employees could be sent on special leave during a disciplinary process.
HEART/NSTA Trust is one of the agencies that fall under the OPM.
He said that if the process was not complete within the period stated by policy, the board could provide guidance “in a situation where the persons are returned to the employment environment even if the disciplinary process is not complete”.
He noted, “The window that the managing director spoke to does not mean that she is guaranteeing that the disciplinary process will indeed be complete within the nine months.”
Mikael Phillips, chairman of the PAAC, asked if the employees who have been sent on leave received letters from the management of HEART about the findings of the investigation.
The managing director said the letters dispatched to the employees formed part of the investigative process and they were given a timeline to respond.
“The receipt of letters is part of the investigative process and so that part of the process would have been concluded,” she added.
Commenting further on the investigative process, Ingleton said the agency followed the guidelines and ensured that it did not breach the policy.
“The process has followed its order from the moment the individuals would have exited the organisation, and based on what was identified, we have followed the steps all the way.”
In August, King’s Counsel Andre Earle, who is representing Sonia Ingleton, senior manager, human resource management at HEART/NSTA Trust, told The Gleaner that no disciplinary hearing had been brought against his client at the time and no charges had been levelled against her in terms of any breach of discipline.
He described the suspension of his client from the training agency as “high-handed, oppressive, and arbitrary”.
Earle told The Gleaner in August that his client’s leave was initially supposed to be for two months, but it was extended for an additional two months and then for a further four months.
“This is a stellar employee. She has been working with HEART for over 23 years. She got long service awards at five years, 10 years, and 15 years, and her appraisals that she gets have always described her as exceeding expectations,” he said.