Keynote Address by
Her Honour Mrs. Heather Seale
President, Industrial Court of Trinidad and Tobago
Review of 2025 Industrial Court Judgements: Key Decisions and Implications for Employers
at the
Trinidad and Tobago Chamber of Industry and Commerce Seminar
Introduction
At the Chamber’s forum in February, last year, on Navigating the Industrial Court: Key Considerations and Best Practices for Employers, I drew attention to the Court’s powers under the Industrial Relations Act, Chapter 88:01 (“IRA”). I posited that the best approach for employers to take, in successfully steering their matters through the Industrial Court was to become well acquainted with the Court’s jurisdiction and its powers as set out primarily in the IRA and other relevant statutes. That approach will also inform my address this, morning. This is so because although I have been asked to focus on judgments delivered in 2025, the principles and practices of good industrial relations which the Court is mandated to have regard to in our decisions, do not really change. What changes is the environment in which those principles and practices have to be applied and the phenomenon in that environment, such as COVID-19, AI, etc.
Therefore, the overarching principles in the Court’s decisions in trade disputes would be the principles of fairness and justice, having regard to the interests of the persons immediately concerned and the community as a whole; and acting in accordance with equity, good conscience and the substantial merits of the case before it, having regard to the principles and practices of good industrial relations. (Section 10 (3). The concepts of natural justice and due process are key in the determinations of the Court as well as in decisions of the Court of Appeal and the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. (PC). Therefore, I have selected certain decisions of both these appellate Courts.
I will touch on decisions which addressed due process, natural justice, section 10 (3) of the IRA, mitigation and Occupational Safety and Health.
It is against this background that I propose to highlight some of the key decisions and the lessons which they hold for employers.