- State to pay King’s House ex-staffers denied access during COVID
The Government would reimburse two former King’s House employees’ wages and allowances, with interest, for COVID-19 restrictions that prevented them from entering in October 2021.
After failing to deliver COVID-19 test results, office attendants Valerie Marsh Bennett and Signorina Raymond were suspended in October 2021.
Last March, the women sued the State for violating their constitutional rights and causing them hardship by blocking work. Yesterday’s accord avoided a February 10–11 Constitutional Court hearing.
Attorney Hugh Wildman told The Gleaner, “The attorney general agreed to settle with the two ladies and to pay all the back monies, plus interest and legal cost.”
He stated the attorney general urged the court to reimburse by the end of the year.
Wildman says his clients like the result.
“They feel good. After we sued the government, they understood they had no case and settled, he said.
The former employees requested various declarations in their March 20, 2023 petition, including that only the governor general, on the Public Service Commission’s opinion, can remove them as public servants under Section 125 of the Jamaican Constitution. They wanted full compensation from April 2022 to their settlement.
According to their affidavits, the Jamaica Constabulary Force was ordered to prohibit the women from entering King’s House on October 6, 2021, when they came for work.
They claimed the Public Service Commission and governor general did not notify them of their dismissal.
The plaintiffs said Claudine Heavens, the Governor General’s secretary, enquired them about their vaccination status during the pandemic. Heavens demanded medical reports to justify their unvaccinated status, which they delivered.
Bennett said Heavens told her she would travel to Andrews Memorial Hospital to check her doctor’s report. She gave Heavens a hospital report that corroborated the findings.
Bennett said that when she returned to work on October 6, 2021, Heavens called her and Raymond again to ask about COVID-19 tests. Heavens ordered them out after they declared they couldn’t pay the test.
The women claimed they wanted written permission to quit, but Heavens advised them to consult their union. Raymond supplied a medical report justifying her inability to receive the immunisation.
The Jamaica Civil Service Association ordered Wildman to represent women.
