Barbara Gayle
, Staff Reporter EUGENIE EBANKS, the former Director of Administration at the Betting, Gaming and Lotteries Commission (BGLC), is appealing against a Supreme Court ruling last month that the BGLC had the power to dismiss her.
The BGLC fired Ebanks on February 19, 2001 and she sued for wrongful dismissal. She contended that the BGLC had no authority to fire her because she was a public officer.
It was agreed between the parties at a case management conference in the Supreme Court in June this year, that preliminary decisions should be made as to whether the BGLC had any statutory power to dismiss Ebanks and whether Ebanks had the status of a public officer within the terms of the Pubic Service Regulations.
RULING
Miss Justice Gloria Smith, in handing down her decision, upheld submissions from attorneys-at-law Dr. Lloyd Barnett and Frank Williams that the BGLC, having employed Ebanks, had the power to properly terminate her services. The lawyers also argued that Ebanks was not appointed by the Governor-General on the advice of the Public Service Commission, therefore she was not a civil servant or had the status of a public officer.
The lawyers argued that Ebanks was a party to a contract of employment with the BGLC and was governed by the terms and conditions of her letter of appointment. The lawyers submitted that the Public Service Regulations applied only to persons who were appointed by the Governor-General on the advice of the Public Service Commission.
They said the power to dismiss proceeded from the same constituted authority as the power to appoint. "A person who is not appointed by the Governor-General on the advice of the Public Service Commission cannot demand that the procedures prescribed by the Public Service Regulation should apply to him/her," the lawyers submitted.
The judge, in handing down her decision, said "I accept and adopt the submission of the defendant that the definition of the public service demonstrates beyond doubt that the phrase is meant to cover persons employed in the civil service in the strict sense of the words and not to persons employed to a statutory body."
