| After seven years…By Brushell BlackmanA former Customs Officer is still awaiting monies owed to him by his former employer. Brent Griffith,Soccer Jerseys From China, 44, of Agricola,China Jersyes Cheap, East Bank Demerara,Jerseys NFL Cheap, was dismissed from the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) in 2000.According to the frustrated man,Cheap MLB T-shirts, in October 2000 he was summoned to the office of the then Deputy Controller Jameer Baksh and told that his services were terminated.He admitted that he had heard rumours of his dismissal but did not make much of them. He said that he told Jameer that he needed to see that in writing,China Jerseys Wholesale, that correspondence never came and that he continued to report for work.Dismissed GRA employee: Brent Griffith Griffith was then hauled before the then Commissioner General, Lambert Marks, and was told that he was dismissed and that he needed to remove from the grounds of the agency with immediate effect.According to the aggrieved man, what triggered his dismissal was a period of sick leave that he took and which the GRA claimed not to have been made aware of. The man said that it is strange that such a claim was made since it is the same sick leave the National Insurance Scheme used to compute his payment for the period he was away.Frustrated and hurt,Cheap Jerseys China, Griffith subsequently sought assistance from the Ministry of Labour, and according to him that was a waste of time. The man who worked with the GRA from 1986 until the time of his dismissal, started as a Customs guard, working his way to Acting Customs Officer 3.He said that he worked at a number of GRA locations across the country. Not an individual to become despondent, Griffith sought assistance from the Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr Roger Luncheon, who advised him to address his concerns to the Chairman of the GRA Board of Directors in his quest for ‘justice’ as he puts it.He said that he heeded Luncheon’s advice but got no success. All this time he was unemployed and struggling to make ends meet.Dejected and feeling a sense of betrayal Griffith took the matter to the courts to seek redress. Through his lawyer Benjamin Gibson, he filed for wrongful dismissal against GRA and also sought compensation for the time he was away from work.The court ruled against Griffith in 2001 and the decision was upheld by the Appeal Court when it was heard there.Not satisfied Griffith took the matter to the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) and the matter was dismissed there as well. According to the man the reason was that the GRA at the time of his dismissal was an autonomous agency that could hire and fire as it saw fit. According to Griffith the CCJ chided the GRA legal representatives for allowing the matter to reach the courts.According to him the judges opined that the matter should have been solved departmentally and Griffith paid what accrued to him.Based on those comments Benjamin Gibson, Griffith’s lawyer filed for a retrial and at that hearing before Justice Carl Singh the GRA agreed to compute and pay to Griffith what he deserved for the period he was off the job. More than two years later the man is still awaiting a penny from that promise.He said that when he contacted the legal department of the GRA he was told by a Ms Hishan Yassin that the matter was already ruled upon by the CCJ. Griffith said he found that assertion wholly dishonest since the GRA had agreed to pay him at the end of the re-trial.When Kaieteur News contacted the legal department of the GRA, Ms Yassin is out for the day. Queries were directed to another legal officer, but calls to his phone went unanswered.The man said that after 14 years of dedicated services to the GRA it hurts to see the treatment that is being meted out to him. He said his loyalty to the GRA caused him to be beaten because he showed up for work and did not join other employees in the 87 days public servants strike in 1999.He is now reduced to living on the generosities of friends and doing odd jobs to survive. The father of three said his pains are unbearable to see what he has been reduced to.A Guyana Police Force trained Prosecutor,Seconda Maglia Juve 2018/19, with five CXC’s and a number of customs trainings to his name, Griffith is hopeful that the relevant authorities will pay him what is due to him. He estimates the amount to be over one million. In the meantime life continues to be a struggle for the Agricola resident. |
