Dear Claudienne:

I was employed to Atlas Group Limited as a security guard on August 25, 1995.

On October 4, 1996 I was appointed as a location controller and in this position received a monthly pay cheque and also got vacation and sick leave pay.

In 2005 I was granted a firearm permit and used the weapon assigned to me at various locations. I also worked with the company’s armoured and ABM services as an armed agent.

In June 1919 I was assigned to work at the compound of a hardware supply business as an armed officer alongside a security guard who was unarmed.

I was placed in the warehouse where no one could see me. The management instructed the security guard to report any suspicious activities to me, as from the warehouse I could not see or hear anything.

On June 18, 2019 I was on duty from 7:00 pm to 5:00 am. At 2:50 am I got a call from the Atlas Communications Centre and was told that the unarmed security guard at the hardware compound was having some problems.

I stepped out of the warehouse, I saw a man with three sets of glass windows on his head. I shouted at him but he was still walking away with the load on his head. I fired a shot at him and he dropped the windows and ran into a dark area on the compound. I fired a second shot in the direction of where the thief was running and seconds later I heard voices that made me realise that there were other people in the dark area of the compound. I then fired another shot in that direction and heard people running.

Shortly after, my supervisor came to the location and, on doing checks, several brands of paints and glass windows were found at different spots on the compound.

I completed a written account of what happened and on September 25, 2019, I was summoned to a disciplinary hearing regarding the incident, charged for negligence and discharging the company’s firearm, and behaving in a manner likely to bring the company into disrepute. After the hearing I was fired.

For my 23 years of service I was offered 12 weeks’ pay and when I went to the Ministry of Labour and Social Security I was told that the amount I was paid was my full entitlement.

From I was dismissed I have been trying to get P24 forms for 18 years from the company’s payroll department to enable me to make a claim for income tax refund but I have been told that I can only get the P24 forms for five years. However I have been getting the runaround and have not yet got the forms for the five years.

I would appreciate your assistance in this matter.

LG

Dear LG:

Tell Claudienne contacted the human resources officer at Atlas Company Limited and she promised to instruct the payroll department to give you the P24 forms. She said that the papers had been put in in boxes and archived and that it would take time for a search to be done for P24 records.

We note that the payroll department has given you the P24 forms for five years and has informed you that they have not been able to find the forms for the other years.

However, even if the payroll department had given you the 18 P24 forms, the income tax office would only have accepted six for the processing of your claim.

The Tax Administration of Jamaica (TAJ) told Tell Claudienne that no more than six P24 forms can be accepted in a claim for an income tax refund. She said that more than six P24 forms are statute-barred.

We wish you all the best.

Have a problem with a store, utility, a company? Telephone 876-936-9436 or cell #

876-484-1349 or write to:Tell Claudienne c/o Sunday Finance, Jamaica Observer, 40-42

1/2 Beechwood Avenue, Kingston 5; or e-mail:edwardsc@jamaicaobserver.com. Please include a contact phone number.