Teacher loses appeal for old job
December 09, 2006
A Jamaican teacher who represented himself before the United Kingdom Privy Council has lost his bid to be reinstated to his post at the Montego Bay Community College.
The Privy Council on Thursday threw out the appeal of Easton Wilberforce Grant, an economics, statistics and mathematics lecturer, who was dismissed by the Board of Management of the college in 1999.
In 1998 Dr. Lorna Nembhard, who was then principal of the college, made a complaint to the Board of Management following Grant's behaviour at a staff meeting in September 1998 and his subsequent refusal to attend meetings with the principal to discuss the academic performance of his students.
The personnel committee conducted an inquiry in May 1999 into the complaint and found that Grant's abusive and aggressive behaviour towards the principal at the staff meeting on September 7, 1998 amounted to unprofessional conduct. The committee also found that complaints against Grant of neglect of duty and insubordination were proved and a recommendation made to the Board of Management that he should be dismissed.
Challenging the validity
After Grant was dismissed, he appealed to the Teacher's Appeals Tribunal, challenging the validity of the hearing by the personnel committee, but his appeal was dismissed on June 30, 2000. He applied to the Judicial Review Court to have the tribunal's ruling quashed, but Justice Howard Cooke heard the motion and dismissed it. The Court of Appeal upheld Mr. Justice Cooke's ruling and dismissed Grant's appeal.
The Privy Council, in dismissing Grant's appeal said he "did not make out any of the grounds of appeal upon which he relied".
The respondents were the Teacher's Appeals Tribunal and the Attorney-General and the Privy Council ordered Grant to pay their legal costs.
Author: Barbara Gayle
Source: Jamaica Gleaner
