The government will not contest the High Court’s decision to award damages totalling $70 000 to five teachers who the court declared were unreasonably transferred to various schools in January 2013, Attorney General Dale Marshall said Monday.
“The State does not propose to appeal the decision,” he told Barbados TODAY.
On October 14, Madam Justice Shona Griffith ruled that the transfer of teachers Fiona Babb-Springer, Amaida Varetto-Greaves, Leslie Paul Lett, and Gail Rhonda Streat-Jules from, and John Edward Crichlow Matthews to, the Alexandra School, with effect from January 1, 2013, was an exercise of statutory power that was “Wednesbury unreasonable”.
A decision is Wednesbury unreasonable if it is so irrational that no reasonable person, acting reasonably, could have made it. Wednesbury unreasonable is a legal standard used in judicial review to assess the validity of decisions made by public authorities under British case law in Associated Provincial Picture Houses Ltd v Wednesbury Corporation in 1948.
The judgement in the judicial review suit orders the government to pay $20 000 each to Babb-Springer and Greaves as compensation for consequences of the unreasonable transfer and the breach of their substantive legitimate expectation not to be transferred without their consent, and $10 000 each to the other three as compensation for the consequences of the unreasonable transfer.
The reliefs sought by the teachers included declarations that the transfers were void and of no effect and that the decision to execute them be quashed, with damages and costs awarded – all of which the teachers received.
Former Alexandra School principal Jeff Broomes – who was among 20 teachers transferred from that St Peter institution in January 2013 – welcomed the court’s decision and the teachers’ decision to take legal action in the first place.
“All I can say is that people respond to what their contract says. If their contract said they were not entitled to be transferred, then it shouldn’t happen. They had the foresight to bring a suit. You just can’t take up people and transfer them willy-nilly without any respect for their contractual arrangement,” contended Broomes, who was at the helm of the school during a period of unrest leading up to the transfers.
The body representing the interests of government-paid secondary school heads said it was not in a position to comment at this time.
“We will apprise ourselves of the information and, if necessary, make a statement at a later time,” the newly elected president of the Barbados Association of Principals of Public Secondary Schools (BAPPSS), Robin Douglas, told Barbados TODAY.
President of the Barbados Secondary Teachers Union (BSTU), Mary Redman, who was at the forefront of the fight for the teachers, could not be reached for comment up to the time of publication.
Justice Griffith outlined the reasons for declaring the transfers unreasonable, which resulted in damages being awarded.
“The transfers were made within the circumstances of ongoing and publicised administrative discord and upheaval at the Alexandra School, in respect of which there had been two statutory processes of investigation and inquiry sanctioned by the government for the purpose, inter alia, of producing recommendations to remedy the situation,” the judge ruled.
She said reports containing recommendations from those two statutory processes (the Alexandra School Inspection Report, November 2010, and the Waterman Commission of Inquiry Report, September 2012) were produced and were directly relevant to any action undertaken by the government towards remedying the situation at the School.
The judge added: “Neither the Alexandra School Inspection Report nor the Waterman Commission of Inquiry Report identified the four claimants or any of the other 16 teachers transferred out of the Alexandra School as being the causes of the administrative upheaval at the school, nor did either report recommend the transfer of the four claimants or any of the other 16 teachers transferred from the school, as a course of action necessary to remedy the situation at the school.”
Justice Griffith also ruled that even though the government was not legally bound by the recommendations of either report, it was obliged to, but failed or refused to, give reasons for taking action that “plainly departed from the recommendations of the reports and was not supported by the recommendations or factual inquiries evidenced in the reports”.
The judge said the claimants were afforded only nine or fewer days’ notice of the transfers, in circumstances where there would be significant changes not only to their personal and daily lives but also to the preparation and delivery of their teaching assignments.
Senior Counsel Alrick Scott and Ian Bishop represented the teachers, while Principal State Counsel Marsha Lougheed appeared for the defendants, the Chief Personnel Office, the Public Service Commission, and the Attorney General.
emannueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb
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