Former JTA head loses lawsuit against teachers’ body

The wage agreement for a 20 per cent minimum increase in basic salary after tax, between the Government and the Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA), has been upheld after the Supreme Court dismissed a challenge by former JTA President La Sonja Harrison.

Harrison filed a lawsuit in July 2024, arguing that the JTA violated its own constitution by signing off on a three-year wage offer from the Government through a virtual special delegates’ vote in March 2023, instead of an in-person meeting.

Her previous tenure was for the year 2022 to 2023. She has been re-elected to the post.

Harrison sought several declarations from the court, including that it declare that the special conference held on March 12, 2023, was unlawful and “null and void” because it was conducted virtually rather than in person.

During that special conference, the JTA’s membership voted overwhelmingly to accept the Government’s salary package, with 629 delegates in favour and no more than 147 against.

Based on the majority vote of the delegates, the Government’s proposal was accepted and signing done the following day. However, Harrison did not sign the proposal, it was done instead by the president-elect at the time, Leighton Johnson.

Harrison pursued orders that would set aside the JTA’s acceptance of the Government’s salary package, arguing that the mandate to accept it was derived from an improperly convened meeting.

She sought a ruling that the online voting conducted during that conference was contrary to the JTA’s constitution and therefore had no legal effect. She also requested the court to affirm that, according to the JTA’s governing documents, delegates must be physically present to cast valid votes at a special conference.

NOT IN KEEPING WITH CONSTITUTION

Harrison, in her evidence, said she had a duty to ensure that what was done at the special conference was in keeping with the JTA’s constitution. To that end, she sought and obtained legal advice and, based on the advice, she received she came to find that the voting was not done in keeping with Section 14 of the JTA constitution which mandates that all voting at a special conference must be done in the physical presence of all the delegates.

She stressed that the special conference did not conform to sections 13 and 14 of the constitution and, as such, the vote taken at that special conference was unlawful, null and void and of no effect.

However, in her judgment handed down on January 19, Justice Tania Mott Tulloch-Reid questioned whether Harrison was fit to bring the claim in the first place.

“If the majority of the members were of the view that the salary package offered by the Ministry of Finance was a reasonable one, this court is unable to comprehend the basis on which this claim is being made by a sole member acting on her own initiative with no instructions from the group of which she is a part,” Mott Tulloch-Reid said.

“There is nothing in her evidence which suggests to this court that the remedies she seeks are being sought on behalf of the membership as a whole, although it is clear that any decision made will affect the membership as a whole,” the judge added.

The court found that the meeting at which the decision was taken to accept the Government’s wage package, which was done virtually and for which the vote was taken by a show of hands virtually in 2023, was in accordance with the JTA’s constitution and in keeping with the amendment to the Companies Act passed in 2021.

Harrison was ordered to pay JTA’s legal costs, which are to be taxed if not agreed.

The JTA was represented by attorney’s Caroline Hay, King’s Counsel, and Zurie Johnson.

sashana.small@gleanerjm.com