THE joint select committee on the Jamaica Teaching Council (JTC) Bill is considering provisions which would place a time restriction on the Jamaica Teachers’ Association and the National Parent-Teacher Association of Jamaica to nominate representatives to sit on the appeals tribunal of the council.

Failure to do so would result in the portfolio minister nominating persons to represent the groups on the tribunal, if the amendment is approved by Parliament.

The suggestion of a timeline came from Government Senator Ransford Braham at a meeting of the committee on Thursday. He lamented that lengthy periods could elapse before a tribunal is empanelled if a group drags its feet on the selection of a representative.

“When a tribunal cannot be appointed unless a body nominates a member, if the body, for whatever reason, declines to nominate a member it cripples the tribunal and the minister would not be able to go around that. I’m not against the nomination; all I’m saying is we should put something in place in case they don’t nominate,” Braham said, pointing to an example in the past which affected the education ministry, stalling the setting up of a similar body for years.

The committee was continuing deliberations on the setting up of the appeal tribunal, provided for in the JTC Act. It also took the decision to have a full panel of five take all matters through their full course instead of selecting a quorum, as was originally proposed, and to expand the category of persons who are eligible to chair the appeal tribunal to include attorneys at law with at least 15 years’ experience. The members also agreed that the portfolio minister has the authority to appoint a temporary chair, both in the short and long term, in the absence of the permanent chair.

Solicitor General Marlene Aldred, however, advised against a quorum, cautioning that this concept could present some difficulty as a panel that sits to hear a matter should complete the hearing. She further advised that the frequency with which the tribunal would need to hear matters must be factored into the legislation.

“Normally when you’re deciding how you’re going to compose your tribunal, and whether or not the tribunal should sit in sets of panels, or not, you have to look at the work that you think will be brought before the tribunal,” she said.

Government Senator Kavan Gayle explained that in the case of the three-member Industrial Disputes Tribunal (IDT), if any member is unavailable, the proceedings are suspended until the member is available. “If it’s a situation where a member of that tribunal is out for an extended period, then another member may be selected to hear the issue. The tribunal at that point may determine whether or not the matter is reopened and start from scratch — but that is normally under extreme circumstances,” he outlined, noting that with a five-member tribunal the proceedings could continue with a three-member quorum.

Aldred, meanwhile, agreed that any person who temporarily chairs the panel should have the same qualifications as the permanent chair. “Normally, if you have specific qualifications for a chair, if you’re going to have someone act for the chair, that person should also have the same qualification, and the law should make it clear that the person should have the same qualification,” she said.

At the same time, Senator Braham urged the committee not to seek to over-legislate gaps which would be addressed by the natural order of the process. “If one [member] dies, which occasionally happens, then usually what happens is that you have to start over. I don’t think that you need to do anything more to what we have; the common law will take care of it. I don’t know that we must over-legislate every conceivable minor matter.”

He also asserted that while the idea of a retired judge as chair is favourable, retired judges are scarce. “They retire at 70, so the availability of a retired judge could be a problem. As sensible and as nice as it is, sometimes retirement is an impediment to getting the matter going along because of age and infirmity,” he stated.