By Barbara Gayle, Staff ReporterTHE EIGHT customs officers, who were ordered reinstated by the Public Service Commission in 1999 after they were sent on interdiction in 1997, are appealing against a Supreme Court ruling that they were not entitled to vacation leave while they were on interdiction.
The customs officers, who were interdicted arising from a multi-million dollar car importation racket in 1993, had brought an action in the Supreme Court last year contending that they had more than 105 days vacation leave which had acumulated while they were on interdiction. They claimed they should be paid for their vacation leave.
LOST OPPORTUNITES
The officers said they were not seeking to go on vacation leave because while on interdiction they had been passed over for promotions. They also lost opportunites for training for advancement in their field.
Mr. Justice Marjorie Cole-Smith heard the case in the Supreme Court and the customs officers are contending that the judge failed to appreciate and make a clear distinction between a period of interdiction and vacation leave. The appellants said the judge held that both could be equated as they involved the employee being absent from work with his employers's consent.
