The affidavit of Sgt Ian Carty, the assistant secretary of the Police Service Social and Welfare Association, was part of the evidence tendered at the Industrial Court which sought to put a stop to the 21st-century policing project. The court's president, Deborah Thomas-Felix, threw out the application on Monday, saying the documents were not properly filed.
The court nevertheless said the project may be illegal, as the Chief Personnel Officer (CPO), Stephanie Lewis, was not brought in when the terms and conditions of the project were being drafted. The application named the CPO as the first respondent and Police Commissioner Dwayne Gibbs as second respondent.
Thomas-Felix said in order for that type of application to be heard by the Industrial Court there must be a trade dispute. In this case, she said, there was none. Thomas-Felix also made it clear to the association that the police commissioner was not responsible for police officers' terms and conditions of employment, and that the association should have first engaged the CPO.
The court said the CPO was never involved in these talks. Carty, like the association's president, Sgt Anand Ramesar, who was the applicant in the matter, is a lawyer. The six-page document, which was obtained by the T&T Guardian, cited injunctive relief against the COP and Dwayne Gibbs. It outlined an injunction restraining Gibbs and the CPO from:
• instructing police officers in the Western, Central and Tobago Divisions to work for four 12-hour shifts over a minimum period of four consecutive days;
• from instructing police officers to drive for more than four hours continuously without a rest of at least one hour afterwards;
• from making verbal and/or written threats of disciplinary action to police officers should they not report for duty on their rest days;
• from rostering detectives to work more than 52 hours a week;
• from breaching Regulation 66 of the Police Service Regulations of 2007 and;
• from instructing officers to wear uniforms that are not approved.
The affidavit said during 2011, the association's executive met with the executive of the Police Service and they agreed that the Police Service would engage in a pilot project, labelled 21st- century policing, in Western Division. "This agreement was limited to the Western Division and was represented by the executive of the Police Service that it was a pilot project only," the affidavit read.
It added that the association subsequently visited Western Division and observed that the terms and conditions of officers were being altered to facilitate the project. "In the first instance duty books reflected a shift system of a compressed work week of 48 normal working hours in excess of the normal prescribed working hours of 40 hours.
"Because the work week was so compressed so were the 'weekly rest days' on which officers were free from duty and were called out on their second and third weekly rest day to perform duty in absence of any emergency conditions existing in Western Division or in Trinidad and Tobago on a whole," the affidavit stated.
Regarding the role of detectives, it identified officers in Western Division, who were labelled "detectives" and were not only scheduled for more than 40 normal working hours a week but were also requested to come in on their weekly rest days to perform duties. The issue of new uniforms was also cited as the affidavit stated that the association was advised by Gibbs that the Police Service would change the uniforms as part of a "rebranding process."
It added that Gibbs, without consulting or agreeing with the association, went ahead and instructed officers to visit the Police Quarter Master Stores to collect the new uniforms. "On one occasion in 2011 Ramesar openly stated to Gibbs and Deputy Police Commissioner Jack Ewatski that under the project police officers were being treated like cattle," it said.