The Full Court has affirmed the previous ruling of High Court Judge Franklyn Holder, who invalidated a poll conducted back in 2020 by the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) in an attempt to replace the Union of Agricultural and Allied Workers to represent workers at the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) Burma Rice Research Centre.
Among other things, Justice Holder had ruled that the poll conducted under the auspices of the Trade Union Recognition and Certification Board in the absence of survey which was a mandatory prerequisite, contravened the Trade Union Recognition Act and was therefore unlawful.
The poll saw GAWU gaining majority support for representation of the GRDB workers.
The Full Court comprising Justices Navindra Singh and Gino Persaud, unanimously upheld Justice Holder’s ruling in totality, declaring that both the poll and its findings were unlawful.
In the brief ruling delivered on Wednesday morning, Justice Singh described Justice Holder’s decision as “airtight,” and noted that it would be upheld in its entirety, thereby dismissing the appeal filed by the GAWU.
GAWU was ordered to pay the Union of Agricultural and Allied Workers (UAAW) costs in the sum of $200,000 no later than October 21.
In voiding the December 11, 2020 poll, Justice Holder had declared that the Trade Union Recognition and Certification Board breached Section 21 of the Act by failing to first conduct the survey.
He therefore quashed the Board’s decision.
Among the arguments advanced by GAWU through its attorney, Pauline Chase, was that the fixed date application (FDA) ought not to have been brought by the UAAW’s trustee or General Secretary.
Senior Counsel Roysdale Forde, who represented the UAAW, had contended, however, that a proper reading of Section 20 of the Trade Union Act illustrated that the right to institute proceedings by a Trustee was not limited to property, as GAWU “erroneously” contended, but extends to “any action, suit, prosecution or complaint in any court of law or equity, touching or concerning the property, right, or claim to property of the Union.”
The FDA had been filed by the UAAW’s Trustee and General Secretary Carl Lynch and Leroy Levans respectively.
Forde had submitted that a Trade Union does not possess legal personality and therefore could only institute legal proceedings through its Trustees and/or by some other duly authorised office. He underscored in his arguments, also, that without the mandatory survey establishing that it had a support of no less than 40%, the Trade Union Recognition and Certification Board could not proceed to conduct the poll.
Justice Holder ruled in favour of Forde on all the arguments he advanced.
