employees were outside UMELCO's jurisdiction and that they should apply for legal aid as soon as possible to obtain an order to wind up their employer's company. Nonetheless,
Members assured them that in order to
expedite the matter, the UMELCO
Office would ask the Legal Aid Department to process their application urgently and would find out whether the Labour Tribunal could advance the date scheduled for them to file their claims for arrears of wages, etc. At the request of the workers, Members also undertook to clarify with the Legal Department whether criminal proceedings would be instituted against the employer for issuing dishonoured cheques.
In response to subsequent enquiries by the UMELCO Office, the Director of Legal Aid advised that before the workers approached UMELCO, a bank creditor had already taken receivership of the company in question. As there was no fear of its assets being removed by unauthorised persons, there was no urgency in applying for provisional liquidation of the company. The Director subsequently advised that an order was made by the Court to wind up the company.
As regards the filing of claims with the Labour Tribunal, the Registrar/Labour Tribunal and the Assistant Registrar/Courts confirmed that it was not possible to advance the dates for the workers to file their claims for arrears of wages, etc. The reason for this was that due to the specialised nature of this sort of cases, detailed knowledge of the procedures
was required. As such, it was not possible to deploy additional staff from other units to expedite the work.
On the question of instituting criminal proceedings against the employer for issuing dishonoured cheques, the Attorney General advised that the matter was being investigated by the Commercial Crime Bureau to see if there was sufficient evidence to
warrant institution of criminal proceedings.
In this case, although UMELCO could not offer direct assistance to the workers, efforts were made to ensure that all information and possible facilities were made available to them to help bring about an early settlement.
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