The Court of Appeal has agreed that former contract workers of Holiday Inn Sunspree Resort are eligible to vote in the ballot to determine the union's claim for bargaining rights.

The ruling was made last Friday when it upheld a Supreme Court ruling in 2007.

Supreme Court judge Marva McIntosh had upheld an Industrial Disputes Tribunal's (IDT) decision regarding the categories of workers eligible to vote in the National Workers' Union's (NWU) claim for bargaining rights.

Holiday Inn Sunspree Resort had appealed the judge's ruling. The Court of Appeal will give its reasons in writing at a later date.

Holiday Inn contended that it had taken a policy decision in 2004 to discontinue its practice of using contract workers after Hurricane Ivan damaged the hotel in 2004. The contract workers had their contracts terminated, or those which expired were not renewed.

The contracts were terminated after the union had served its claim for bargaining rights for contract workers.

A dispute arose in December 2004 between Holiday Inn and the NWU regarding the categories of workers for whom ballots should be taken. The Ministry of Labour referred the dispute to the IDT for settlement. The terms of reference to the IDT were to determine and settle the dispute with regard to the categories of workers for whom a ballot should be taken, or persons who should be eligible to vote in the ballot to determine the union's claim for bargaining rights.

On May 30, 2005, the IDT made an award providing the list of workers employed by Holiday Inn who were entitled to vote. Holiday Inn took the issue to the Supreme Court, contending that the IDT erred when it decided that the workers in Exhibit 18 (which was a list of the workers employed by Holiday Inn and members of the NWU at the date of service of the Union's claim) were entitled to vote.

Government lawyers had argued that the IDT had the jurisdiction to determine either the category of workers of whom a ballot should be taken or the persons entitled to vote in the ballot. They said the workers' right to vote on a ballot to determine bargaining rights was preserved even where a worker was dismissed (under a contract) or was no longer employed to Holiday Inn subsequent to the service of the claim.

Holiday Inn contended that if the ballot was taken on the basis of the IDT's award, it would deny numerous former employees of Holiday Inn the right to vote on the ballot.

barbara.gayle@gleanerjm.com