The T&T Electricity Commission (T&TEC) has been ordered to pay $1 million in compensation to a driver who was unfairly forced to retire on medical grounds after suffering a mild heart attack in 2011.
The Industrial Court made the order in a 25-page judgment delivered at its headquarters in Port-of-Spain on Thursday morning.
In their judgment, Industrial Court judges Kathleen George-Marcelle and Janice Christopher-Nicholls agreed with the Oilfields Workers’ Trade Union (OWTU) that the company had not followed the proper process when it forced the worker to retire in June 2012.
While the worker’s name was mentioned throughout the judgment, both he and his attorney requested that his name be withheld for fear of being targeted by criminals interested in his windfall.
The court held that the company failed to find an alternative position for worker, based its decision on a medical report that was not comprehensive and failed to consult with the worker before it made its decision.
“The employer seems to have disregarded the worker’s 19 years of service to the company and treated the worker in a less than humane manner,” Christopher-Nicholls said in the judgment.
While the driver was seeking over $3.8 million in damages for his loss of earnings inclusive of potential overtime, the court agreed to the reduced figure.
The driver began working with the commission from 1993.
In February 2011, the driver suffered a blunt chest injury during a cricket game which induced a heart attack. He was forced to take 44 days sick leave before he returned to work to resume his duties.
Later that year, he wrote to the company’s management suggesting that he be transferred to a job in the office to limit the possibility of him suffering another attack while in the field.
“It would be preferable for it to happen in a chair rather than behind a steering wheel with other lives at stake,” the driver said in the letter.
Following the suggestion, the driver was instructed to visit the company’s doctor Dr Tennyson Sieunarine for a medical assessment.
After the assessment, the driver was informed that he had to retire. He agreed and received a lump sum payment of $220,839.60 and a monthly pension of $2,822.73.
He solicited the union’s assistance in June 2013, after he went to the National Insurance Board (NIB) to apply for a disability grant and was informed by its doctors that he could not qualify as he was not invalid.
The union was represented by Lyndon Leu.