Technical director at labour ministry takes PS to court over alleged demotion

A legal fight is looming at the Labour and Social Security Ministry as Deborah Patrick Gardner, the chief technical director in charge of labour issues, is suing Permanent Secretary Collette Roberts Risden for allegedly demoting her and chasing her out of meetings. 

Patrick Gardner, who is also an attorney-at-law, filed an application for a judicial review in the Supreme Court in March. 

The matter is scheduled for a hearing today before Justice Chester Stamp. 

Patrick Gardner is alleging that Roberts Risden subjected her to unequal treatment under the law when she reassigned her to the Jamaica Productivity Centre, a lesser status than those who reported to her.

Roberts Risden has declined to comment on the specific allegations, only saying that as permanent secretary her role "is to ensure that the work of the people gets done and to also ensure that the strategic priorities and objectives of the government are achieved". 

This is the second time that Patrick Gardner has taken government officials to court.

She was successful in her suit brought against the Public Service Commission when steps were taken to retire her in 2016 at age 42 on the grounds of reorganisation.

She was then principal executive officer of the government-run Court Management Services, which is now Court Administration Division.

Following the Supreme Court ruling in 2018, she was transferred to the Labour Ministry. 

The Full Court ruling that she was unlawfully retired was upheld by the Court of Appeal.

Patrick Gardner, in the suit filed against Roberts Risden and the Attorney General, is also seeking constitutional redress. 

She outlined in court documents that her personal belongings were invaded and removed and that she was refused access to the floor of the ministry's North Street building in Kingston which housed her office.

She is alleging that Roberts Risden created a hostile environment for her so as to ensure that she was blocked from performing the functions of her post.

Patrick Gardner is claiming that the PS, having failed to have the Director for Industrial Relations and Allied Services appointed to act in her post, unlawfully transferred the functions pertaining to her office to industrial relations division. 

According to the senior civil servant, she was subjected to cruel and humiliating treatment and public ridicule by staff and regional colleagues during instances when she was barred or chased out of high-level labour meetings by the PS while officers who reported to her were allowed to participate.

“The first respondents and or her agents has taken actions to bar the applicant from the functions of her post and the entitlement of her office while creating a false perception that the applicant is refusing to perform her duties within the ministry as a means of further damaging the applicant's reputation in the public service aimed ultimately to effect her removal from the public service,” she outlined in the claim.

Patrick Gardner said, in spite of her memorandum dated December 9, 2021 to the PS in which she told her that the decision to strip her of her functions had rendered her position useless and impacted her negatively, the PS ignored her and removed her from the labour portfolio.

She will be asking the court to find that she suffered breaches to her fundamental rights under the Constitution as well as other breaches.

Patrick Gardner is being represented by the firm Nunes Scholefield DeLeon & Company, while the PS is being represented by the Attorney General's Chambers. 

- Barbara Gayle 

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