We have always been told that Barbados is a society that values sharing, giving back, and performing civic duties, but sadly some within our ranks have decided the selfish approach works better for them.
This country has been proudly built on a development strategy which prioritises the pooling of resources so that all boats rise with the tide, and that those who have started at a disadvantage because of historic circumstances are not left behind.
We have examples of this with the provision of free education from nursery to tertiary. Our public health care system, for all its faults and shortcomings, represents a buffer that does not exist in many countries.
Our social security system, on which the newly rebranded National Insurance and Social Security Service, relies on the whole supporting the individual, whether it is through the provision of pensions or unemployment benefits.
Just two years ago when this country was in the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was the collective contributions of workers and employers that prevented the near collapse of the economy and a quick slide into poverty by thousands of workers and self-employed persons, who lost their source of income.
We say all this because the Barbados that citizens enjoy today, where there is peace, stability, cohesiveness, a high quality of life, and a relatively low crime rate, are the result of the sacrifices of Barbadians before us.
They had a vision of the type of country they wanted for themselves and their offspring, and they sought to create the conditions that would enable that vision to be realised.
It was, therefore, disappointing that a High Court Judge was recently forced to threaten prosecution against an unnamed employer who reportedly dismissed an employee who was away from the job on jury duty.
Mr Justice Carlisle Greaves, who is regarded as a no-nonsense judicial officer, who asks no quarter and gives none, was not amused by the business owner’s actions.
“One of the cases that has come to my attention last year is one of the jurors, who was with us and refused a deferral, has been fired by her firm. They know who they are. Paid out. Fired.
“You know who you are. I am going to suggest you open your window and your door to your heart and let her back in, else you will be subject to serious prosecution,” Justice Greaves said from the Bench recently.
He made it clear that preventing an employee from serving as a juror through harassment, dismissal, short pay, threatening them with dismissal or denying them time to serve are all against the law.
The most compelling component of the judge’s argument was not the fact that such actions conflicted with the laws of Barbados, but that they were an affront to good citizenship.
Jury duty is a sacrifice being made for the good of this country, and employers ought to view it that way when one of their employees is asked to serve.
“The same businesses and business people who feel it is too much to let an employee come and serve on the jury in this country, are the same ones that when their day comes to seek justice in these courts for some wrong done to them or theirs, would want jurors to serve to assist in bringing them justice,” the Judge reminded us.
He added: “So just because your firm, your company or you – Mr Employer or Mrs Employer – has not been robbed or arsoned or burgled or been assaulted, been murdered or any such thing, does not entitle you to feel that you must not contribute to the peace of this country by lending us a few employees from time to time.”
Justice Greaves knows only well that Barbados is a place where jurors do not have to worry about their personal safety after voting to convict a person in the criminal courts.
Even in the much-vaunted United States of America, some prosecutors are worried about the safety of jurors and court staff who are serving in the adjudication process for former President Donald Trump.
Thankfully, for us in Barbados, the population is still mature enough to understand that jury duty is a critical national service.
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