THE security company Marksman Ltd was yesterday fined $500,000 and its senior director Valerie Dugan Brown fined $50,000 for breaches of the Labour Relations and Industrial Disputes Act in the Half-Way-Tree Resident Magistrate’s Court.

However, the company, in a statement last night, said it had instructed its attorneys to file an appeal against the ruling, which was handed down by Resident Magistrate Georgiana Fraser.

In the meantime, trade unions which have been seeking to represent workers at the security company hailed the ruling of the court, and said it should pave the way for union representation for security guards.

It is alleged that in 2003 the United Union of Jamaica (UUJ) and the National Workers Union (NWU) sent several correspondences to Marksman Ltd requesting information to allow them to seek bargaining rights for the company’s guards. Marksman, the court was told, failed to forward the necessary information to the unions to have the workers represented. This prompted the intervention of the Ministry of Labour who accused Marksman Ltd of union busting and sought legal action against the security company.

Trade unions have for years been trying to seek representational rights for security companies. The security companies hold that the guards are independent contractors who do not qualify for union representation, while the trade unions, supported by the labour ministry, maintain that as legal employees of the security firms, the guards are entitled to union representation.

Island supervisor of the NWU, Vincent Morrison, said yesterday the court had sent a clear message to Marksman and any other companies who try to interfere with the rights of their employees.

“.It’s a very straightforward and simple approach… If you don’t apply to the law then the law will be applied to its fullest extent. Under Sections 3.3 and 5.3 of the Labour Relations and Industrial Disputes Act the implications are clear if you don’t respond. What has happened today (yesterday) will send a message to all those companies who think that they can take advantage of their employees,” Morrison told the Observer.

Yesterday’s ruling by RM Fraser is expected to pave the way for security guards to join the unions of their choice. Similar cases against two other security companies are to go before the court in February next year.