Roy Sanford, Staff ReporterWESTERN BUREAU:
THE CASE against three medical technologists from Cornwall Regional Hospital, who were charged along with their colleagues from Kingston and St. Catherine for ignoring an Industrial Dispute Tribunal's (IDT) back-to-work-order, did not get under way in the Montego Bay Resident Magistrate's Court on Monday as scheduled.
The matter, which was expected to start then, never got going as investigators from Kingston failed to show up for the proceedings. Furthermore, attorney-at-law Raymund King, who is representing the trio of Warren Williams, Ratcliff Shakes, and Winston Wilkes, told the court that he is waiting on a ruling by the IDT to decide whether the case should continue in the courts.
The IDT completed its hearing into the dispute on June 9, but its ruling has not yet been released. It is expected that ruling will be handed down in September, at which time Mr. King will decide on his next course of action.
Williams, Shakes and Wilkes are each facing three counts of failure to obey a ruling by the IDT in February when they, like their colleagues across the island, refused to cease industrial action and return to work as was ordered.
The case will be heard again on September 29.
In February, the medical technologists withdrew their services for four days, pressing their case for a salary increase in their pay scale up to the level of scientific officers who, they said, perform similar duties to them.
The Ministry of Labour referred the matter to the IDT, which ordered them back to work. However, they defied the order and the Director of Public Prosecutions ordered that they be served with summonses to appear in court. They are charged with breaches of the Labour Relations and Industrial Disputes Act (LRIDA).
