Akash Sama­roo

Lead Ed­i­tor, Pol­i­tics

akash.sama­roo@cnc3.co.tt

New­ly ap­point­ed In­dus­tri­al Court judge Rudranath In­dars­ingh says that al­though he has long­stand­ing ties to the gov­ern­ment, his con­duct on the bench will demon­strate his im­par­tial­i­ty.

In­dars­ingh, who is a for­mer mem­ber of par­lia­ment and sen­a­tor for the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC), is one of three new ap­pointees to the In­dus­tri­al Court of Trinidad and To­ba­go.

The oth­er two are Dr Sel­wyn Sama­roo and Bramb­hanan Dubay.

Act­ing In­dus­tri­al Court pres­i­dent Her­bert Sover­all pre­sent­ed them with in­stru­ments of ap­point­ment on Tues­day.

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day, In­dars­ingh was asked about any per­ceived bi­as­es giv­en his ties to the UNC, which is cur­rent­ly the par­ty in gov­ern­ment.

The for­mer Cou­va South MP said, “My track record speaks for it­self and I’m sure that I will con­duct my­self with a sense of in­de­pen­dence and a sense of fair­ness and trans­paren­cy.”

In­dars­ingh is al­so a for­mer trade union­ist. He served as pres­i­dent of the All Trinidad Sug­ar and Gen­er­al Work­ers’ Trade Union be­tween 1999 and 2012.

Asked how he would bal­ance his trade union past with his new role in the coun­try’s ju­di­cial arm, In­dars­ingh replied, “As it re­lates to rep­re­sent­ing work­ers and al­so en­sur­ing that in rep­re­sent­ing work­ers, you don’t cru­ci­fy or kill the goose that laid the gold­en egg in the con­text of un­der­stand­ing that with­out com­pa­nies, com­pa­nies will not be able to em­ploy per­sons, and with­out per­sons be­ing em­ployed, you will not be able to build the econ­o­my of Trinidad and To­ba­go. So, in that re­gard, my in­ter­est for look­ing af­ter the in­ter­ests of all will be in the con­text of work­ers, com­pa­nies, and by ex­ten­sion, a re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to the over­all econ­o­my of the coun­try and the coun­try as a whole.”

In­dars­ingh added that he has al­ways cham­pi­oned the cause of labour and said his track record shows that he has stood firm­ly with the fam­i­lies of the divers who died in the Paria tragedy, and al­so in play­ing what he called an in­te­gral part in en­sur­ing the Reg­u­lat­ed In­dus­tries Com­mis­sion’s rec­om­men­da­tion to in­crease elec­tric­i­ty rates was not im­ple­ment­ed.

At­tempts to con­tact Sama­roo and Dubay were un­suc­cess­ful.

The In­dus­tri­al Court pro­vid­ed bios for both men.

Ac­cord­ing to the court, Sama­roo is an at­tor­ney-at-law with ex­ten­sive ex­pe­ri­ence in in­dus­tri­al re­la­tions, acad­e­mia, and pub­lic ser­vice, and brings a wealth of ex­per­tise to his role, hav­ing pre­vi­ous­ly served as a judge of the In­dus­tri­al Court from 2012 to 2018.

Pri­or to his cur­rent ap­point­ment, he was man­ag­er of hu­man re­sources and em­ploy­ee re­la­tions at the South West Re­gion­al Health Au­thor­i­ty.

Dubay holds a Le­gal Ed­u­ca­tion Cer­tifi­cate from the Hugh Wood­ing Law School and a Bach­e­lor of Laws (Hons) from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Lon­don.

He is cer­ti­fied in ar­eas such as al­ter­na­tive dis­pute res­o­lu­tion, drug traf­fick­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tions, and T&T Oc­cu­pa­tion­al Safe­ty and Health Ad­min­is­tra­tion com­pli­ance for gov­ern­ment in­sti­tu­tions. From 2007 to 2024, Dubay served as a mag­is­trate and se­nior mag­is­trate, pre­sid­ing over crim­i­nal tri­als, fam­i­ly mat­ters, coro­ner’s in­quests, and pet­ty civ­il court pro­ceed­ings.

The In­dus­tri­al Court is a su­pe­ri­or court of record that was es­tab­lished to pro­mote and main­tain good in­dus­tri­al re­la­tions in the coun­try. The court hears and de­ter­mines un­re­solved dis­putes that arise be­tween em­ploy­ers and recog­nised trade unions rep­re­sent­ing work­ers. It al­so has the pow­er to is­sue an in­junc­tion to a trade union, or­gan­i­sa­tion of work­ers, or an em­ploy­er from tak­ing or con­tin­u­ing in­dus­tri­al ac­tion, such as strikes or lock­outs.