THE COURT of Appeal began hearing legal arguments yesterday in a case brought by the Jamaica Flour Mills (JFM) against a Full Court order that it must reinstate three workers who were made redundant in August 1999.
Workers at the JFM, who were represented by the National Wokers Union (NWU), took industrial action after a number of employees were made redundant. The dispute was referred to the Industrial Disputes Tribunal (IDT) which ordered that the three workers should be reinstated.
The tribunal held that the redundancies were not genuine because they breached the Labour Relations Code. The IDT also said that the two workers who had collected their redundancy payments should be made to refund the payments.
The JFM claimed that it acted in strict conformity with the Employment Termination & Redundancy Payments Act.
Following the Tribunal's ruling in October 2000, the JFM took the matter to the Full Court, contending that the tribunal erred in its decision. The Full Court heard legal arguments and upheld the tribunal's ruling.
The three workers are Simon Sukie, Michael Campbell and Ferron Gordon.
