The Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) has withdrawn an application for an injunction it had sought against deductions being made by the Ministry of Health to the salary of Linden nurses who were part of strike actions earlier this year.
The nurses had been pushing for the removal of Linden Hospital Complex (LHC) Chief Executive Officer, Rudolph Small.
According to a press release yesterday from the Chambers of the Attorney General (AG) by which the Ministry was represented, the union withdrew its application on Wednesday after conceding to arguments the AG had advanced, that injunctions could not be granted against the State.
According to the release issued yesterday, the State at a hearing on September 20th, before Justice Damone Younge, argued that in accordance with the State Liability and Proceedings Act (SLPA), injunctions could not be granted against the State.
The release from Attorney General Anil Nandlall SC, said that submitted by the State, was the argument that while Section 23 of the High Court Act vests in the High Court the power to grant injunctions where it finds it to be convenient, that power is circumscribed by the SLPA.
Section 16(1) of the SLPA, the AG noted in his release, prohibits the Court from granting injunctive/coercive orders against the State.
It provides, “Where in any proceedings against the State any relief is sought as might in proceedings between citizens be granted by way of injunction or specific performance the Court shall not grant an order declaratory of the rights of the parties.”
The release went on to further note subsection (8) of the Act which provides, “the Court shall not in any civil proceedings grant any injunction or make any order against an officer of the State if the effect of granting the injunction or making the order would be to give any relief against the State which would not have been obtained in proceedings against the State.”
Nandlall, according to the release, submitted to the judge that in essence the provisions prohibit injunctions that are “prohibitory or mandatory,” or which “decree specific performance against the State, in any proceedings.”
The AG the release said, presented to the court the case law precedent of the Guyana Softball Association v the Attorney General; in which injunctive remedies sought against the State were refused on the basis that “there can be no rational basis for the existence of a jurisdiction or power to grant an interim or interlocutory injunction when, in the final analysis, a final injunction cannot be granted to a plaintiff.”
“Therefore, it would go against the grain and policy of Parliament to grant coercive orders against the State,” the release said, while adding that in the circumstances, the GPSU sought leave of the Court to withdraw and discontinue its application for the injunction, which the Court allowed.
The substantive matter is still pending.
On June 24th, the union instituted proceedings by way of a Statement of Claim against the Ministry of Health and the AG, seeking among other things, a declaration that the deductions for “Absenteeism and persistent unpunctuality” from the wages and salaries of the nurses was “unlawful, illegal and a nullity.”
The State has noted that the deductions were made after the nurses refused to turn up to work and were engaged in a strike which the health ministry considered “illegal and premature.”
The ministry had noted that by Memorandum of March 10th, 2021 it had notified employees that deductions would be made from their salaries for absenteeism and persistent unpunctuality at work.
In February, 2021 Small had made disparaging statements about nurses when he stated that they (the nurses) would clock in at the LHC and then leave for extramarital rendezvous.
The Ministry of Health, initially dismissed Small but this decision was later rescinded. Small had apologized for his words but the nurses and GPSU were adamant that he be removed. The nurses had staged daily industrial action in the month of March.
