THE Court of Appeals on Wednesday overturned a Supreme Court ruling that prevented six Department of Customs workers from earning and accumulating vacation leave during the period in which they had been placed on interdiction by the organisation.

This verdict may have far-reaching implications for other public officers who seek to earn and accumulate vacation leave while on interdiction, as well as to receive salary in lieu of vacation leave while on interdiction.

On Wednesday the judges – Justice Seymour Panton, Justice Karl Harrison and Justice Hazel Harris – said vacation leave was a benefit to which the public officers were contractually entitled, and that Parliament would not have intended to deny the Customs workers – Beatrice McKenzie, Pamela Wright, Betsy Jones, Desmond Carty, Carlton Campbell and Orrett Harrison – of this entitlement, despite their period of interdiction.

The judges said there was no constitutional provision on record that prevented public officers from enjoying the entitlements due to them in their employment contracts while on interdiction. They then overturned the Supreme Court ruling that the officers were to receive all benefits that they would have accrued had it not been for the interdiction, including the right to earn and accumulate vacation leave.

But despite the Court of Appeal’s decision that the workers were entitled to earn and accumulate vacation leave while on interdiction, it ruled that they were not entitled for payment for the said leave.

According to court documents, the workers were arrested and charged with breaches of the Customs Act on June 24, 1993. It was alleged that they had participated in the fraudulent evasion of import duties relating to the importing of motor vehicles. After 13 appearances in the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate’s Court, the charges against them were dropped on May 8, 1997.

On October 26, 1997, disciplinary charges were instituted against them in relation to the circumstances which had resulted in their arrest. They were interdicted from duty during the period for which the criminal and disciplinary charges were pending, and during this time they received one-quarter of their full salaries.

The workers were reinstated on November 1, 1999, after their accusers failed to establish any of the charges laid against them, and their outstanding salaries paid over to them. On resumption of their duties, however, they claimed that they were entitled to receive payment for the vacation leave they would have earned had they not been interdicted.

On July 18, 2003 Supreme Court Judge, Justice Marjorie Cole Smith, ruled that the workers were not entitled to earn and accumulate leave, or to be paid salary for the period during which they were on interdiction. After being unsuccessful in the Supreme Court the workers then sought redress in the Court of Appeals.