The Office of the Attorney General has agreed to settle a multi-million dollar dispute with dozens of employees at the Immigration Detention Centre in Aripo over gratuity payments from their last contract.
Earlier this year, lawyers representing 26 of the detention supervisors and officers filed lawsuits against the State over the gratuity payments that were due to be paid when their clients’ three-year contracts came to an end in August, last year.
Almost 24 hours before one of the cases was set to come up for hearing before Justice Margaret Mohammed at the Hall of Justice in Port-of-Spain, State Solicitor Avaria Nile, of the Office of the Chief State Solicitor, wrote to attorneys Gerald Ramdeen and Dayadai Harripaul to make a settlement offer.
In the letter, Nile said that Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi had agreed to accept liability in the claims and have the compensation and corresponding interest be calculated by a High Court Master at a later date.
The offer was eventually accepted and the hearing before Mohammed vacated.
Although only 26 employees of the centre opted to sue the State, the decision will affect over 75 of their colleagues who chose not to challenge the non-payment of their gratuities.
In their lawsuits, the employees pointed to a clause of their contracts which guaranteed them 20 per cent of their gross salary under the contract, once it expired.
The gratuity payments are calculated at between $50,000 and $75,000 depending on the positions held by the employees, who have since been given new contracts.
In the lawsuits, the employees were also seeking compensation for breach of contract.