Celena McDonald, the public servant who brought the 2023 lawsuit against the appointment of Debra Alexander-Charles as clerk of the House of Assembly and Simone Williams-Huggins as her deputy, has welcomed the High Court ruling last week declaring the appointments unlawful.
She said that public sector workers who feel aggrieved should seek legal redress rather than pursuing “likes” on social media.
“As a public servant, we have our rights. If you find things not done fairly, you have a right to speak up. Go through the right channels. Do what you know is law, because sometimes, people run on social media, they look for the likes and they look for public stuff, but at the end of the day, that does really nothing for you,” she told the media on Monday.
Alexander-Charles, a former teacher who has served as a senator for the then-ruling Unity Labour Party, was appointed to the post although she had exited the public service years earlier to pursue politics.
Williams-Huggins is a public servant and has worked in the House of Assembly for years before her elevation to the post.
The lawsuit was sponsored by the Public Service Union, which commented on it at a press conference in Kingstown on Monday.
“I wasn’t summoned to an interview or anything of the sort,” McDonald said of her decision to seek legal redress over the appointment.
“Knowing that I worked at the parliament at that time for 13 years, from 1998 to 2021, I said, ‘This cannot be right,” she told the media.
She said she took it upon herself and wrote a letter to the Service Commission, the chief personnel officer (CPO), through her permanent secretary, complaining and laying out her dissatisfaction.
“The permanent secretary signed off on the letter. He sent it to the service commissions and I got no response. For a month, the letter was not acknowledged or anything of the sort. So I went to my union, and I spoke with my president, Mr. Elroy Boucher, and from there, he sent me to the union’s legal lawyers, Mr. Jomo Thomas and Miss Shirlan “Zita” Barnwell and there is where we set things in motion, where this case was brought before the court.
“I’m very, very happy today that on Thursday, the court saw things in our favour; the judicial review went in my favour. I was very, very happy. It was very exhausting, but, you know, somebody had to do it,” McDonald said, noting that the case was before the court since 2023.
She noted that the court was initially being heard by a judge who went on to retire before the matter was disposed of.
Acting High Court judge Cybelle Cenac-Dantes handed down the ruling last week.
“So sometimes, in the public service, one might say, ‘Oh, like, you’re forgotten nobody studying you.’ But you, as a public servant, you have to know the rules, and the rules cannot apply to one side and then forget the other side, and you do nothing about it,” McDonald said.
McDonald said it is important that public sector workers join and seek the help of their union.
“Yesterday marked 31 years in the public service. And 31 years I’ve been a part of the Public Service Union, paid dues — $20 — and, a lot people in the public service, they have grievances, and they sit back and they do nothing, and they just may become little rogue or do no work and stuff, but it’s important that you look for help if you feel aggrieved,” McDonald said.
“And Thursday morning, nine o’clock, when we got the judgment, it was vindication that I did the right thing and the way that those two appointments were made, I knew from the beginning, with all my evidence, all my exhibits, that the judge will find things in my favour.”
Well done you did the right thing .