Derek Achong

Se­nior Re­porter

derek.achong@guardian.co.tt

The new­ly ap­point­ed Cab­i­net will have a say in a law­suit from the Po­lice Com­plaints Au­thor­i­ty (PCA) chal­leng­ing a rec­om­men­da­tion from the Salaries Re­view Com­mis­sion (SRC) to re­duce the salaries of its next di­rec­tor and deputy di­rec­tor.

When the case against the SRC came up for hear­ing be­fore High Court Judge Frank Seep­er­sad yes­ter­day morn­ing, a re­cent ap­pli­ca­tion filed by the PCA and its cur­rent di­rec­tor, David West and deputy di­rec­tor, Michelle Solomon-Baksh, was ad­dressed.

In the ap­pli­ca­tion, the claimants sought to amend their case to fur­ther chal­lenge a de­ci­sion by the Cab­i­net to ac­cept the rec­om­men­da­tions of the SRC in its 120th re­port sub­mit­ted in Oc­to­ber last year.

They claimed that West was not aware of the Cab­i­net’s de­ci­sion when it filed the case and was grant­ed leave by Jus­tice Seep­er­sad to pur­sue it in Feb­ru­ary.

Ac­cord­ing to their court fil­ings, ob­tained by Guardian Me­dia, West and Solomon-Baksh’s cur­rent re­mu­ner­a­tion pack­ages are based on the SRC’s 98th re­port dat­ed No­vem­ber 2013.

In its 113th Re­port in Oc­to­ber 2022, the SRC not­ed that it was await­ing a job eval­u­a­tion ex­er­cise and as­so­ci­at­ed com­pen­sa­tion sur­vey by the Per­son­nel De­part­ment in re­la­tion to sev­er­al pub­lic po­si­tions un­der its purview.

In its 117th Re­port in May 2023, the SRC con­sid­ered the re­sults of the re­view process and rec­om­mend­ed that the salary of the di­rec­tor be de­creased from $38,540 per month to $33,700 and from $33,570 to $29,100 for the deputy di­rec­tor.

It was rec­om­mend­ed that the de­crease take ef­fect in April 2020.

Their lawyers not­ed that the re­port was re­ject­ed by Par­lia­ment due to anom­alies which l ed to a rec­om­mend­ed re­duc­tion in the salaries of sev­er­al pub­lic of­fice hold­ers.

Tak­ing aim at the SRC’s most re­cent re­port, their lawyers point­ed out that the SRC af­firmed the re­sults of the pre­vi­ous re­view and still rec­om­mend­ed an ef­fec­tive de­crease in their salaries.

The SRC main­tained its rec­om­men­da­tion that their salaries be down­grad­ed from 2020 as sug­gest­ed in its 117th Re­port.

How­ev­er, it was rec­om­mend­ed that their down­grad­ed salaries be in­creased from $33,700 to $37,005 for di­rec­tor and from $29,100 to $31,954 for deputy di­rec­tor, ef­fec­tive 2023.

“The rec­om­men­da­tion still rep­re­sents a de­crease in the salaries of the two of­fice-hold­ers, as the rec­om­men­da­tions are still low­er than the salaries cur­rent­ly en­joyed by the di­rec­tor and deputy di­rec­tor,” their lawyers said.

They point­ed out that the 120th re­port, which rec­om­mend­ed salary in­creas­es for nu­mer­ous of­fice hold­ers, in­clud­ing Cab­i­net mem­bers, oth­er par­lia­men­tar­i­ans, the Chief Jus­tice and judges, and the Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice, was laid in Par­lia­ment in No­vem­ber last year.

They sug­gest­ed that the com­mis­sion failed to prop­er­ly con­sult with the duo be­fore mak­ing its ad­verse rec­om­men­da­tions. They stat­ed that the pro­ce­dure utilised by the SRC breached the prin­ci­ples of nat­ur­al jus­tice and their le­git­i­mate ex­pec­ta­tion that they be con­sult­ed.

Through the law­suit, the duo is seek­ing a se­ries of de­c­la­ra­tions against the rec­om­men­da­tion. They are al­so seek­ing an or­der quash­ing the rec­om­men­da­tion and an­oth­er di­rect­ing the SRC to con­sult with them be­fore re­view­ing its de­ci­sion.

The PCA, West and Solomon-Baksh were al­so rep­re­sent­ed by Im­ran Ali and An­tho­ny Bul­lock.

The case is sched­uled to come back up for hear­ing on June 10.