The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Gaming Board's former top official has been awarded $42,404 after the Supreme Court found he was wrongfully dismissed by the regulator.

The Chief Justice, in a February 17 ruling, determined that Verdant Scott, a 33-year Gaming Board veteran who spent the last four-and-a-half years as secretary to the Board, was incorrectly deprived of due vacation pay when his services were terminated with effect from November 29, 2017.

Mr Scott, who was first hired as a gaming inspector in February 1984, initiated legal proceedings for wrongful and unfair dismissal after his 33-year, seven-month career was ended by the Minnis administration. The termination notice alleged that he had no accrued vacation day owing, and that previous payments for accumulated vacation had been calculated incorrectly because they were based "on your current rate of pay as opposed to the rate of pay at which it was earned".

As a result, the Gaming Board "appropriated" the $42,404 vacation pay Mr Scott thought due to him, justifying its actions using the Employment Act. "Scott's pleaded case complains that, in dismissing him from its employ, the Gaming Board breached his employment contract, which is governed by the industrial agreement with the Bahamas Public Services Union (BPSU)," Sir Ian Winder, the chief justice, noted.

"He says the Gaming Board never provided him with a reason for his dismissal and did not afford him the requisite notice set out in the Employment Act. Further, and in contrast to Gaming's contentions that he was purportedly paid benefits commensurate with his years of service, he was not as his vacation pay was reduced by some $42,404."

Mr Scott sued on the basis that this was wrongfully deducted, but the Gaming Board insisted that his vacation pay should be based on when it was accrued not his current rate of pay. The former secretary said he "objected strenuously" to this, but was told by the chairman in response: "Well, you contact your lawyer." The chairman is not named, but is thought likely to have been former MP, Kenyatta Gibson.

And Mr Scott also asserted that "in some cases I was directed not to take vacation due to industry matters such as regularisation of domestic gaming and opening of Baha Mar. In fact, in every such case my inability to proceed on vacation was duly noted and approved by the appointed Board".

Giving evidence on Mr Scott's behalf, Georgette Dorsett-Johnson, a former assistant secretary of the Gaming Board's administrative services division until she was placed on leave at the same time as the ex-secretary, said vacation pay was always calculated on an employee's current pay rather than at the time when it was accrued. Two current Gaming Board employees, its deputy secretary and senior salary administrator, gave evidence for the regulator.

Sir Ian, while accepting the Gaming Board's evidence that Mr Scott was dismissed as part of a restructuring, found he was not properly compensated for vacation pay. "It was evident that Scott's duties that kept him tethered to the Gaming Board and not being able to take leave on demand," Sir Ian ruled.

"In fact, the correspondence in evidence shows that Scott was offered, on one occasion, compensation for 50 percent of his leave by then-chairman Terah Rahming. I accept that he was properly permitted to accrue the vacation due to the exigencies and demands of his high office as secretary to the Board. I was not persuaded that the Gaming Board acted ultra vires at the time in doing so."

Ruling that this had set a precedent that the Gaming Board could not ignore, Sir Ian ruled that there was no evidence produced to show Mr Scott's vacation leave was to be based on the time at which it was accrued. With nothing to show this was policy or standard procedure, he added: "Such a practice would necessitate a reverse accounting of sorts which, on balance, I do not consider was ever the norm when calculating such benefits."