Former Myett’s employees win $96K judgment over 2017 dismissal
The High Court has issued a judgment of more than $96,000 in favour of a dozen former employees of Myett’s Enterprises Limited.
The action was brought by former employees Kimberley Cook Leigh, Cheryl Couture, Cora Liburd, Veronica Bailey, Rudolph Stone, Luz Adell Francisco de Callwood, Sofia Small, Xiomara Luisa Rhymer Mason, Alexander Carina Henriquez Industrus, Carina Industrus, Davina Gordon and Ernie Carol Claxton.
Myett’s lost a decision at the Court of Appeal over severance payment for the former employees in a unanimous judgment that was handed down on May 19.
Chief Justice Janice Pereira, in handing down the Appeal Court’s decision, said after listening to both sides that she was not persuaded on the evidence, that Myett’s had merely temporarily suspended the employees as it had claimed.
They were therefore deemed to have been terminated by way of redundancy and entitled to both pay in lieu of notice and severance pay.
After the matter was referred to the High Court for an assessment of damages following the Court of Appeal’s decision, the former employees were awarded a total of $96,789.50 by Master Alvin Shiva Pariagsingh on June 21.
Dancia Penn, QC and Astra Penn represented Myett’s in the matter while Richard Rowe and Allydah George appeared for the former employees.
Background
In September 2017, Hurricanes Irma and Maria struck the BVI with catastrophic results to business operations, including the hotel and restaurant business of Myett’s Enterprises Limited.
As a result, in October 2017, proprietor Valerie Rhymer wrote to some of the employees stating that Myett’s ‘would not be able to continue their employment at this time’ and that ‘we (Myett’s) wish you well in all your future endeavours’.
There was also a letter by Managing Director, Kareem Rhymer, informing the Labour Commissioner that, among other things: “We [at Myett’s] were forced to go out of business due to the disasters and therefore have no jobs for them and no money to pay them severance pay at this time, through no fault of ours. We have given them letters of permission to seek work elsewhere. Some have already secured jobs in the territory.”
The employees subsequently demanded payment in lieu of notice and severance pay as a result of, what they say is, their termination. They later filed a claim for pay in lieu of notice and severance pay under the Labour Code, 2010 on the basis that Myett’s had effectively terminated their employment.
Myett’s responded by stating that it owed no money to the workers because their employment was temporarily suspended as a result of an act of God, being the passage of the hurricanes. Myett’s felt that, under the circumstances, they would not be entitled to pay in lieu of notice or severance pay.
A High Court Master granted judgment in favour of the workers for an amount to be assessed and found that Myett’s did not have a real prospect of successfully defending the claim.
Myett’s appealed the decision, contending that he misinterpreted the relevant provisions of the Labour Code. Myett’s had also argued that the master erred in bifurcating the issues of liability and quantum on the summary judgment application.
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That is why I dont want nobody working for me more than 5 years
And i hope you get the worst workers in the world who know they are disposable and do the bare minimum and leave your business a shadow of what it could be, people like you who think people should be used as cattle to enrich yourself and only you need to go out of business and fast
You so don’t have far to go.. wickedness over with this new sun cycle going show ayo wicked people the business lol lol
Since you’re big and bold to write that, state the bar you’re also operating so NO ONE will work for you!
So your employees supposd to work for free? They aint no charity they have to pay bills and buy food well as you. Did you pay their NHI you took from their wages?
Pussers next
MW’s ex-employyees weren’t given compensation too….
Lol dwl yo that sh*t crossed my mind lol
Now those former employees of Pussers… get your act together and demand your severance! Let M**k Pay!!!
Mark was not their employer, Tobias was
Yes, but the employees were part of the agreement so they are/were his responsibility when he decided to let them go…
Let them have their day in court.
Perhaps it can be paid from the alleged hundreds of thousands of $ that Myetts raised on go fund me immediately after the storm, that was said to be to support staff but staff claim they never saw a dime
Ignorant. It was not “hundreds of thousands” and provided goods to the employees, who turned their noses up on items shipped in from the states as their greedy a**es wanted money. I donated to this fund and it was clear it was for providing relief supplies to the employees,not cash handouts.
Funny some of the names listed, a lot of greedy expats who game the system back in the states too.
Before you speak on matters you know nothing about…the goods you speak about came from goodwill if you know what that is in the states..most of the food stuff was things the employees didn’t have use for..If you shopping for ppl ask what they want..They got generators and only one staff got where is the rest..Nobody ask for any extra money just what was owe to them..If Myetts wasn’t the greedy one it wouldn’t have come to that but ppl like you will be fine..
U do realize that the go fund me was not owed to them right… what VAL should have done is squash it and send all the donations back to the donors.. then let the ungrateful staff look after themselves…simple… problem solved….Employerd did not have to do nothing for anyone ..especially when they had their own families to look after….smh….they choose to try and help their employees….only to get bitten on their ass…well sa.
They lie. We all got money and supplies purchased from the go fund me. No thanks went out to the owner who organized the help. Instead they sued them for being terminated before the power was even restored. Nasty group of greedy people they are. I’m glad that I stuck with my employers and now still have a good job with nice people.
yess massa was guuud to you
Labor practices in the BVI is to shaft the employees…
Richard Rowe put some blows on the QC?
These employees have no respect for the kind people who gave them gainful employment for many years. They claimed to be terminated when in fact they were not. it was the catastrophic storms that terminated them. Myett’s always intended to pay severance pay when they could but ‘notice of termination pay’? How do you notify your entire staff that a hurricane will destroy the place. That part is really not fair at all. Take note of those persons named who sued during a time of disaster. Do not hire them! They are wicked!
Understood a storm passed etc., but you are an established business here in the bvi for years! You managed to have not one but two locations and still AFTER the storm built a monstrous and overtly costly hotel, yet cannot give severance pay to your workers? Please!
Then come on here and encourage business owners to take note of the names and not employ those businesses. Let this be an example to all business owners, do the right thing and not just what is profitable to you.
Oh by the way, I am a born BVIslander, with deep generational roots here, which should never matter! Right is right and fair is fair!
You got the wrong business. Myett’s only has a small little hotel in which took years to build back after the strorm
Don’t mix up Quito’s with Myetts. We at Quito’s were well taken care of. Get the facts straight……
REALLY! They had a duty to pay severance! It’s the LAW!!!
PERIOD!!!!
I am so happy to see that some people were brave nough to stand up for thir rights!!! That’s what the system is all about…EITHER YOU WIN OR YOU LOSE. And when it comes to severance pay YOU CAN NOT LOSE.I hope this sent a message to who have outstanding payments to be made.
It’s real sad to know that employers treat they staff so badly! From time you hired any employee in that type of business they automatically become family. Your employees are the faces of your company/establishment , the faces that people meet & grow to love, that’s why persons come back to spend at the establishment.
SCRUBISLAND NEXT IN LINE !!!!!!!!!
Thanks for this information.
You need to find out the truth before you talk on matters that’s doesn’t concern you..?
The government owes Prospect Reef staff same way
@Lookie Lou & Customer, You sound like the Wicked one.
Wicked ob**h man!
People like the Rhymers etc are praised in society as outstanding citizens but na**y hearts. Look at this article and come debate me. No place in heaven for these type. They were going to let those terminated employees suffer while the Rhymer look at their … Wickedness.
NEXT is suing employers for not paying NHI and SSB for months. While we at it, let’s sue SSB and NHI for allowing these employers to not pay them for months.
Some of these employers have too much friends in high government positions and we should start putting them on blast. To the one who always on the radio preaching but can’t pay his workers taxes, just know God don’t sleep.
By the time the legal fees are deducted they will get a lil something. Do the maths. 96,000 divided by 12 is 8,000 minus legal fees. But before they get the check they will likely spend it all.
Ok den… Dat money done before them even blink..lol..
The owners have always been gr**dy and treated their staff badly. So happy for the employees and hopefully a warning to other prospective employees of where to seek employment.
No one wins. The truth is that a lot of businesses were bankrupted after Irma and some still are, but there are no bankruptcy laws in the BVI so there is no choice for the business owner but to hang on praying that the staff will leave on their own accord and eliminating the need to pay severance with the hope that by some miracle the might do enough business to pay off what is owed and get out, this could take a life time. The employee on the other hand hangs on no matter the situation or conditions because the have been conditioned to believe they are entitled to receive severance as a reward for time worked in any establishment. It was already the middle of slow season when hurricane Irma came so operating funds were already stretched and I am sure a lot of businesses were not insured or not insured enough for the damage that was sustained. It was not the employers fault nor the employees it was an act of God. There was no job for the employee to show up for and there was no business for the employer to operate. We cannot continue to do business like it is 1989 when it was anything goes here in the BVI. As in everything, we have to change and adjust to the challenges we face today and climate change is a big part of that. We have to adjust and create business policies and practices that match the current business environment will to ensure we can do GOOD business and survive in the BVI.
…Finally someone with sense… smh
If the owners were so awful then why were the employees working there for so long? They were happily employed up to the storms. They were always treated and paid fairly and on time up to the hurricanes. Severance was never the contention. The owners were always going to pay that in full. It was the ‘extra’ termination pay that was the issue. The employees sued for termination pay in addition to severance pay. As if things were not bad enough all around. The owners never terminated anyone. To ask for termination pay due to a hurricane is wrong. The BVI Labour Laws need review. Had the employees had given the owners at least a chance to regain some normalcy after the storms it could have been settled out of court. But no…the first named got them all together and filed a law suit while everything was still in a state of emergency. Even though the owners were in communication with the employees asking them to give some time for the payment. Once a law suit is filed it goes to court and is disputed. There was no decency in this case. Yes, the owner wrote letters at the employees requests to help them get other jobs while they rebuilt. That is not termination. Get the whole story and you will understand that these employees could have been at the least more loyal to the people who had gainfully employed them for many years.
So the employees should be so so grateful to give up their hard earned severance pay? Are they not the same people that helped make you all that money all those years?? You collected all that insurance money and go fund me monies post hurricanes and still you chose not settle up with any of your employees. Instead, you tried to avoid having to pay them at all thinking that you could get away with it by calling it “an act of God.” A lawsuit was filed by quite a few former employees. Even the judge didn’t agree with you two times around. AND over 4 years of dragging these long time employees through court. I hope there is interest involvedTime to pay up and move on!
So you are saying that your former employees should be so so very grateful that they should just walk away from their hard earned severance pay that was accumulated over many years of working? Are these not the same employees that helped you make huge sums of money over many years? Maybe you should have been the grateful ones and by law, paid your former employees? Or were you hoping they would fade away and not fight for it, hmmm. You then collected massive insurance money and the GoFundMe Monies and you still did not, by law, pay your former employees, knowing that they wanted their money. A lawsuit ensued. I’m sure you were then hoping the former employees would give up after you then, unnecessarily, dragged them through court for four years. Continuance after continuance, appeals, personal attacks on the employees in the courtroom, tsk tsk. BUT, THE LAW says what it says and the Court upheld that two times over. I hope there is interest involved after four years. Time to pay up and move on! Kudos to the employees for standing up for themselves and fighting for what they know they earned.
Labour is useless. Now we all can see that, than God for the bravery and courage of these badly treated workers to turn to the law for justice..Sell their property and pay the staff. Long over due.Or send them Jail..Stop playing.
I love when articles like these grace the headline. For this reason I will not eat from Myettes again. Most of these business owners in the BVI, treat their staff poorly.
Labor department need to look in to the companies with the high employee turnovers.
I’m extremely proud of the members of staff for uniting and taking a stance.
B***’s needs to be next, that man have robbed everyone even God and his friends in government covering up his s**t$$$.
myetts…mmmmmeh
Pay the people $8000.00 and move on. The court has spoken loudly.