Address by
Her Honour Mrs. Heather Seale
President of the Industrial Court of Trinidad and Tobago
at the Special Sitting of the Industrial Court to mark the Opening of the 2024/2025 Law Term
The Industrial Court stands at the cusp of its sixtieth year. On March 20, 2025, the Court will celebrate its Diamond Jubilee. The Industrial Stabilization Act, 1965, (ISA) the precursor to the Industrial Relations Act, Chapter 88:01, (IRA) which now governs this Court, was assented to on March 20, 1965.
This occasion presents an opportunity to reflect on the origin of the Court. On the Second Reading of the Industrial Stabilization Bill on March 18, 1965, the then Prime Minister and Minister of Community Development, Dr. the Right Honourable Eric Eustace Williams, gave some statistics on strikes and its effects on productivity from 1960 to 1964, there were 230 strikes, an average of 46 per year resulting in a total of 803,899 man-days lost, an annual average of over 160,000 man days per year.1 The strikes also resulted in significant lost wages to workers, loss of government revenues and losses to business.
During the same five-year period, ten arbitration tribunals were appointed, nine boards of enquiry and four commissions of inquiry. Dr. Williams highlighted that while the community had a responsibility to each of its sections, none of these should ignore its own obligations to the larger community.
Before finalizing the ISA, the Government considered a number of precedents from Australia, Singapore, Jordan, New Zealand, Scandinavia and the United States of America. However, it did not slavishly follow any of the precedents studied but drafted a Bill that contained many unique features.