A former executive member of the Public Service Union, retired public servant Harvey Farrell, who is an Assistant Secretary General of the main opposition New Democratic Party, has flagged the delay of the Court of Appeal in ruling on whether to allow the vaccine mandate case to go to the London-based Privy Council for final determination.
Farrell, a retired public servant who is a former executive member of the Public Service Union, raised the issue as he campaigned for his party in Mahaut, Lowmans Hill.
In 2021, hundreds of public sector workers lost their jobs for failing to take a COVID-19 jab, as the government had mandated.
The PSU, the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Teachers’ Union and the Police Welfare Association sponsored a lawsuit against the government.
In March 2023, the High Court ruled against the government in the case, but the Court of Appeal, in a 2-1 decision, overturned that ruling in February 2025.
The unions have since applied to the Court of Appeal to have the Privy Council, SVG’s highest court, review their decision, but the court is yet to rule on that application.
In his campaign speech, Farrell spoke about the unwillingness of the ULP administration to back away from the “wicked, draconian vaccine mandate.
“All over the world, we are seeing where governments are now claiming that, ‘Look, we got it wrong. We got it wrong. Many of the things we did we should not have done.’
“The only government in the entire world that has never retracted from that is the Ralph Gonsalves-led administration — only one.”
He noted that public sector workers sued the government over the mandate.
“They won the case in the first instance; the government used taxpayers’ money, our money, your money, to appeal the judgment.”
Farrell noted that in the appeal ruling, the dissenting judge’s reasoning “almost mirrored what the court of first instance had said — the government was wrong; the government was wrong on all counts …”
Farrell pointed out that the public servants have signalled their intention to appeal to the Privy Council.
“Up to today, they can’t get leave to take the matter to the Privy Council. What are they doing? Is this a matter of trying to stall somewhere so that an event could happen before this matter is taken to the Privy Council?” he said.
The event Farrell was apparently referring to was the general election, which is widely expected to take place by November, ahead of the February 2026 constitutional deadline.
“We are quite confident that if this matter goes to the Privy Council, the public servants will prevail,” he said. “Why has this matter taken all that time before you can get leave to go to the Privy Council? Your guess is as good as mine.”
He said that public servants who did not take the jab as mandated by the government were sent home.
“When I say public servants, I mean teachers, policemen, those working in the general public service and so on,” he said, noting that some public companies took the government’s advice and fired workers who did not take the vaccine.
“They have created a class of poverty in this country that you had not seen before,” Farrell said.
“We cannot allow that to continue. We can’t. So, every one of you within the sound of my voice, I am asking you to think on these things.”
Meanwhile, speaking on the same platform, NDP Secretary-General, Brenton Smith, a former police officer who lost his job under the mandate after 27 years of service, urged voters to remember the impact of the COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
He said the mandate affected the lives of many teachers, nurses, doctors, police officers, and civil servants.
“Keep them in mind as you go to the polls on election day,” Smith said.
He said recent comments by Gonsalves that supporters of his NDP should shelve their complaints until after the election were “insulting to the hardworking people of this nation…
“He stated that he does not want any Labour Party supporters grumbling during this election period and that they must wait until after the elections.
“This simply means that he does not want you, the citizens of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, to voice your concerns about high unemployment, soaring electricity bills, high grocery prices, extreme poverty, the dilapidated state of the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital, high crime rates, and unfair promotions within the government system, the many bad roads in Mahaut and West Kingstown,” Smith said.
“Instead, he expects you to remain silent until after the elections, allowing for more Labour pain. It is clear that he has not experienced the heat of Labour pain or simply does not care about you, and for that, we must vote him out of office,” said Smith, a former chair of the Police Welfare Association.
“Are citizens of this country slaves on his plantation? It’s like beating your child and telling them not to cry. But time is drawing near; you will have the final say,” he said.
The Privy Council will side with the Eastern Caribbean Court of Appeal because the government of SVG had a moral duty and legal right to do what it believed would protect the well being of both the general public and government personnel by instituting a life saving vaccine mandate even if in retrospect there was some overreach in its implementation.
No rational person should expect perfection when it comes to government policies and procedures.
Since the Appeal is against the longest Serving Prime Ministers Government, wait for the few months when don’t have the longest Serving Prime Minister in the Commwealth as Prime Minister.
The NDP in Government, its the longest Opposition now in Government. The AG’s Office see that leave to the Privy Council is provided.
I suppose this can happen.
Friday can do the Business.
There is a strong possibility that Vincentian politics is being manipulated by foreign entities. The victories you are celebrating may, in fact, be orchestrated by agencies like the CIA and MI6 to maintain the current oppressive regime. History has shown us that the West will not tolerate the rise of a sovereign Black nation. It is crucial that we become savvy to these manipulations. Don’t think poverty and high youth unemployment is the most normal thing in the world.