If an employer or employee wants to report a dispute to Labour Administration, this is the process to follow:

1. Meet with a Labour Inspector to report a dispute - this meeting can happen in person or via phone - an appointment may be necessary.
2. At such a meeting the Labour Inspector will need to complete paperwork - bring any documentation you may have.
3. The Labour Inspector will have 21 days to help you and your partner agree on a resolution to your dispute.
4. If after 21 days you have not agreed on how to resolve the dispute the Commissioner of Labour will have seven days to help you reach agreement.
5. If you are still not able to resolve the dispute the Commissioner will have the matter referred to the Labour Tribunal.

NOTE: The first report of an employment dispute should be made to a Labour Inspector.

The Applicant is the party (person) who reports a trade dispute within an essential or a non-essential service, under the Ordinance. The person against whom relief is sought by the applicant is the Respondent. You are required to file your dispute with the EMPLOYMENT SERVICES for CONCILIATION. Should your dispute not be resolved, the Commissioner of Labour may refer the dispute to the Labour Tribunal within twenty-eight (28) days. You, the APPLICANT, must within fourteen (14) days after receiving notice that your dispute was referred, submit to the Secretary an ORIGINATING APPLICATION in writing signed by yourself.

We seek all parties to attend for hearing by 9:30am on arrival; you should make your way to the reception area designated. A staff member there will tell you which waiting room to go to. If you are attending for more than one (1) day, you should check in with reception every morning.

Tribunal Hearings are conducted in an informal atmosphere, as much as possible. Your evidence will be given under oath and the Tribunal follows normal court practice with giving of evidence followed by cross examination and reexamination. The aim is for the procedure to be orderly, simple and flexible.

On a complaint of unfair dismissal or failing to permit a woman to return to work after pregnancy, the Tribunal may consider ordering a reinstatement or reengagement. You should, therefore, be prepared to give evidence as to:

• The availability of the job the applicant held or of similar jobs
• Whether you would take the applicant back, either in the old job or in a similar one

Section 29. (1) Employment Ordinance 2004

Every employer shall keep records as are necessary to show whether or not the provisions of this Ordinance or any Ordinance relating to employment are being complied with as respect to his employees.

All correspondence received has to be referred to the Tribunal President for directions. It would help us if you could limit correspondence to essential issues, keep letters short and to the point. PLEASE ONLY SEND FAXES FOR URGENT MATTER. IF YOU SEND US A FAX, PLEASE DO NOT SEND US THE HARD COPY IN THE MAIL as this causes us to duplicate work. We have a plain paper fax machine which produces permanent, non-fading copies.

Hearings can be completed in shorter time if the parties exchange witness statements beforehand and witnesses give evidence by reference to their written statement.

The Hearings may be completed in a shorter time if you are able to provide written statements for yourself and each of your witnesses, including all the matters that you consider important. Your witnesses may then be able to give evidence by referring to their witness statements. The other party and possibly the Tribunal may ask questions to complete the evidence. As giving evidence in this form is encouraged, you should bring five (5) copies to the hearing in addition to your own copy. It will be up to the Tribunal at the hearings to decide whether to accept witness statements.

When a case is listed for a multi-day hearing date we reserve a Chairperson and Tribunal room in advance. These resources may be wasted if the parties over estimate the length of hearing.

If your case is postponed close to the hearing date we may be unable to allocate that hearing date to another case. This leads to a waste of the Tribunal’s resources and delays the hearing of other cases, which might otherwise have been able to be listed in its place.

This will avoid us taking unnecessary action on your case and may enable us to allocate your hearing date to another case.

It will save time on the hearing day if you exchange the documents, to which you will be referring, with the other parties before the hearing day. Ideally, you should aim to produce one bundle of documents between the parties, including all documents on which both sides will be relying.

It is very important that both parties bring to the hearing any papers the Tribunal may need to look at. It would help if you would send a list of any papers you intend to rely on, to the other party and to us as well, in advance of the hearing. The other party may ask to see or have a copy of such papers. Please try to cooperate with this. It can help us all by avoiding delays at the hearing.

You should bring to the hearing the following:

• Your own set of papers
• A copy for the other party (unless you have already sent them)
• One copy for the use of all witnesses (not a copy for each)
• Three (3) copies for the members of the Tribunal

If you are bringing a number of papers, it would help if they were clipped together with the pages numbered.

If you or any of your witnesses are disabled and are concerned about accessing our facilities, please contact the Department of Employment Services Providenciales.

The employer must –

• Set out in writing –
  1. The employee’s alleged misconduct which has led to the dismissal,
  2. What the basis was for thinking at the time of the dismissal that the employee was guilty of the alleged misconduct, and

• The employee’s right to appeal against dismissal, and
• Send the statement or a copy of it to the employee.

• If the employee does wish to appeal, he must inform the employer.
• If the employee informs the employer of his wish to appeal, the employer must invite him to attend a meeting.
• The employee must take all reasonable steps to attend the meeting.
• After the appeal meeting, the employer must inform the employee of his final decision.