Date : 14/04/08
Joanna Hernandez
The letter made public on Thursday from the then Chief Executive of the Social Services Agency Isabella Tosso, written on 24 October 2005, clearly shows that she did not take the decision to fire Ms Joanna Hernandez herself. It said that the Social Services Agency reviewed the performance of the complainant and reached the conclusion that the appointment should not be reconfirmed.
Therefore what has been said in the press release issued by the Social Services Agency on the same day as the matter was made public is untrue since their star witness herself has said in writing that it was the Agency, namely the board of the Agency, which is chaired by the Minister that took the decision.
In another letter of September 2005 written by the then Chief Executive it was stated that the labour inspectorate had been consulted on the possibility of the appointment of Ms Hernandez not being confirmed at the end of the year. This is the only indication given by the Agency until now that any advice was taken on the termination of employment.
We challenge the Government to say who gave the legal advice and when that legal advice was given to terminate Ms Hernandez’s employment. The labour inspectorate have said that they have no record of having been consulted and that they would in any event not give advice on whether an employee’s contract should be terminated or not. It has not been possible to challenge this evidence by the star witness of the Agency because nobody in the Agency can confirm the alleged consultation.
The Agency is now saying that the burden of proof cannot be discharged because the person who took the decision is not available to give evidence as to the reasons for the decision and the manner in which the decision was arrived at. This implies that nobody else in the Agency from the Minister down is able to say why the decision was taken or how the decision was taken. Therefore if they cannot say how or why, how can they claim that the decision was fair? They only know that Isabella Tosso thought that Ms Hernandez was unsuitable and that she was the only person who took the decision.
The Complainant asked for Isabella Tosso to be issued with a subpoena to attend the tribunal while she was still in Gibraltar. The Agency initially said that they would ensure her attendance because she was their star witness. Some months ago, at the previous hearing, they then said they were unable to locate her but that they would continue with the case regardless. This was accepted by the Complainant.
http://www.gibnews.net/cgi-bin/gn_view.pl/?GSLP080414_1.xml
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