President of the Workers Institute for Organized Labor (WIFOL) Theophillus Thompson said he met James at Parliament House on Friday where he informed him of the court's decision but so far the General Manager has not made contact with the union neither the workers who reported to work on Friday shortly after learning of the Courts decision. Thompson said SBRMC was ordered to pay the workers their full salary and to reinstate them, failing to comply with the judge's order will cost the company an additional Naf. 25,000.00 per day in penalty.
Maarten Le Poole Attorney at Law for the WIFOL and the Pelican workers said that the General Manager of SBRMC was served with the court's decision on Friday afternoon (November 25th) and according to him the penalty is already being enforced. "In my opinion, its four days since the verdict was given to the company's General Manager and the penalty is already mounting. However, the Pelican workers case is becoming more technical by the day since the lawyers representing SBRMC has filed a procedure which will be heard on Tuesday. The Appeals Court will take a decision to either execute or suspend Friday's ruling," Le Poole said.
In the meantime, the SBRMC has appealed Friday's verdict while the WIFOL had appealed the Appeals Court verdict issued on November 2nd. The court of Appeals is expected to decide as early as Tuesday if the workers will go back to work immediately or if they would have to wait until the Supreme Court issues its decision.
Democratic Party Strategizing on several issues.
It should be noted that while the company and the union are battling out the labor dispute before the courts, the members of the coalition government are meeting separately to decide on how they will handle the Pelican saga and Member of Parliament Jules James.
According to reliable information reaching SMN News, the members of the Democratic Party met on Saturday at the Government Administration building where they discussed ways of handling the Pelican saga and Jules James. According to sources close to the Democratic Party, certain members of the DP are not happy with how their party leader and Prime Minister Sarah Wescot Williams is handling matters especially regarding issues surrounding the coalition government between the United Peoples Party and the Democratic Party. The source said one of the unhappy persons is Member of Parliament Leroy de Weever who believes his nephew Minister of Labor Cornelius de Weever is being treated unfairly. The source said De Weever feels that if the labor policy is fully implemented then the General Manager of SBRMC would have to abide by them when laying off or firing workers. Another issue that had to be discussed is the pending placement of the school managers where Stuart Johnson was to be placed as head of the Lionel Conner school. A matter which still has to be resolved by the Minister of Education and Culture.
