Social Services Whistle-Blower Will Get Unfair Dismissal Hearing, Tribunal Chairman Rules How many weeks are there in a year? And when does a working week start or end? Two prominent members of the Gibraltar Bar as well as Opposition Leader Joe Bossano spent more than an hour this week arguing these points when an Industrial Tribunal convened – not to hear a case of unjust dismissal brought against the Social Services Agency, but to decide whether the tribunal had the legal right to hear the case.
This week’s hearing was the latest installment in a sorry saga of legal twisting and turning in which the Attorney General, acting for the Government, has attempted to avoid a public hearing of a case which is likely to open yet another can of worms in the recent history of mismanagement and nepotism within the Social Services Agency and which probably would point the finger of failure and shortcoming firmly at the Minister whose responsibility it is – Yvette del Agua.
And although the chairman of the Tribunal, Isaac Massias, eventually ruled that he was eligible to hear the case which has been set down for hearing from January 16 to January 26, Bossano told VOX that he would not be surprised if the Attorney General appealed against the chairman’s ruling when Massias gives it in writing some time between now and Christmas. “We could well go all over the same ground again – this time in the Supreme Court,” Bossano said.
This would again delay the hearing of the case and, because by then the current director of the Agency Isabella Tosso will have left the job, Bossano could be denied the opportunity of questioning her under oath. This, SSA staff believe, would have opened another can of embarrassing worms.
(As VOX reported several months ago, Tosso has been the victim of a destructive campaign conducted against her by “old hands” at the agency – some of whom are also likely to be “named and shamed” at any open Tribunal hearing. Tosso has also become an unwitting scapegoat for del Agua’s failings.
The case at the heart of the protracted wrangling – and a confusion added to when the Attorney General switched the lawyers appearing on his and Government’s behalf – centres on the dismissal of Joanne Hernandez, a “whistle blower” who as manager of the Dr Giraldi Home had become concerned by the handling of patients and inmates of the home and was particularly disturbed by reports of ill-treatment and abuse – some of which she witnessed.
Patients Ill-Treated According to Bossano, when Hernandez attempted to raise the issue she was warned that she should remember she was on probation. She persisted in her claims about ill-treatment of patients at the home and in October last year was given a month’s notice on the grounds of her “unsatisfactory performance.” She took her case against unfair dismissal to an Industrial Tribunal.
However, Mark Isola, who appeared for the Social Services Agency and was instructed by the Attorney General, argued that Hernandez had not been employed for a full year and because of this was not entitled to a hearing. He advanced complex arguments suggesting that because Hernandez had started work on a Monday and not on a Sunday, she had not worked for a full 52 weeks. British law implied that a week began on Sunday, he suggested.
Bossano's Experience Joe Bossano – who may not be a lawyer, but relies on decades of experience as a trade unionist when he appears before an industrial tribunal – demolished the Isola arguments but was equally long-winded. Mrs Hernandez who sat beside Bossano looked baffled – and slightly intimidated – by the protracted arguments
But Bossano, who appears on behalf of complainants at tribunals free of charge has never lost a case…and this was no exception. Massias accepted that Hernandez was eligible to have her case heard, and agreed with Bossano that 52 weeks is 52 sets of seven days whatever the day on which they start.
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