Grindley termination dispute at labour ministry
Published:Friday | October 25, 2019 | 12:06 AM
Floyd Grindley, the former general manager of Petrojam who was unhappy with the terms of his separation package with the state-owned oil refinery, has taken the matter to the Ministry of Labour.
Permanent secretary in the Ministry of Science, Technology and Energy, Carol Palmer, made the disclosure on Wednesday to members of Parliament’s Public Administration and Appropriations Committee (PAAC).
Palmer indicated that Grindley was not satisfied with the termination package he received from the company.
However, Telroy Morgan, the acting general manager of Petrojam, revealed that Grindley had written to the chairman, Paul Hoo, expressing a desire to leave the company.
In a letter dated July 10, 2018, Grindley wrote to Ho, stating, “Dear Chairman, this is to advise you that should the board agree, I am amenable to a termination of my contract under the termination clause at 15.1a. It means, therefore, I am prepared to accept four months’ pay in lieu of notice. I have taken this decision in the best interest of Petrojam.”
According to Morgan, the chairman of Petrojam responded: “Dear Mr Grindley … we will proceed to terminate a mutual agreement in accordance with stated clause of contract.”
The committee was told that Grindley’s total emoluments were $20 million per annum.
In a written response from Petrojam, the committee was informed that a net payment of $5,233,028 was to be made to Grindley on or before July 31, 2018.
The response further stated that Grindley was asked to “keep the terms of the agreement strictly confidential”.
However, when asked to comment on confidential contractual agreements in the public sector, Palmer said she had first heard of this arrangement in the media when Petrojam appeared before the PAAC.
Palmer, a veteran senior public-sector administrator, made it clear that when she sought advice in the past from the Attorney General’s Department regarding confidential contractual arrangements, she was told that “things in Government were not confidential because it’s taxpayers’ money that is being used to pay”.
“I would have a difficulty dealing with confidential clauses in contracts,” she added.
The former human resources manager at Petrojam, Yolande Ramharrack, also had a confidentiality clause in her separation agreement with Petrojam.
On the controversial issue of airline tickets at Petrojam, the Major Organised Crime and Anti-Corruption Agency reported that it had been in dialogue with the director of public prosecutions with a view to concluding particular issues attendant to the matter.
In June 2018, the PAAC was told that former chairman of Petrojam, Dr Perceval Bahado-Singh, had repaid an airline ticket of more than US$7,000 (J$900,000) for travel to a meeting in the United Kingdom, which he did not attend.