The Industrial Court has ordered boutique property management and real estate firm Marble Villas to pay a former assistant electrician EC$22,250, after finding the company manufactured a redundancy to terminate his employment and coerced him into signing away his right to legal recourse on the same day he was dismissed.

According to Antigua.news, Iwandy Daniel, who had worked with the company since February 2016, was handed both a termination letter and a severance agreement simultaneously on January 20, 2023, and was told he would not receive his severance pay unless he signed the release immediately.

Daniel signed without legal advice, without time to verify the figures, and without knowing the calculation was incorrect, according to the judgment. The Industrial Court delivered its ruling on April 24, finding the company's conduct to be harsh, oppressive and inconsistent with good industrial relations practices.

"A document which asserts voluntary execution does not become voluntarily executed merely because it says so," the court wrote.

Daniel was earning a gross weekly wage of $750 at the time of his dismissal, nearly seven years into his tenure with the company, which had been involved in major construction projects including one that now houses the Cuban Embassy.

His termination letter cited economic conditions and a lack of major construction projects as justification for making his position redundant. However, no other employee was let go. The court was not persuaded that any genuine redundancy existed. Daniel's direct supervisor and senior electrician, Linroy Gardner, acknowledged during cross-examination that work could come and go as recently as January 2023 and that he had been able to engage Daniel for full working weeks. Gardner also confirmed he would sometimes transport Daniel to work at a separate business.

The court found that testimony flatly contradicted the company's position that electrical work had declined to the point where only one electrician was required. The company produced no financial records, no accounts and no contracts that failed to materialise to support its claims of declining business activity.

The court further noted that Daniel's salary was never reduced during the COVID-19 pandemic, his hours were never cut, and the employer offered no documentary evidence to challenge that record.

"The selection of a single employee for redundancy without any criteria, pool or comparative exercise does not carry the hallmarks of a genuine redundancy driven by business need," the judgment states.

The court also found that even if a genuine redundancy had existed, the manner in which it was carried out fell well short of the required standard. Daniel received his termination letter with just three days' notice, and no meaningful consultation had taken place despite the company reportedly having reviewed its staffing since July 2020.

On the severance agreement, the court found all three elements of economic duress to be present. The company was aware that Daniel's mortgage was being serviced through salary assignment and that he was the primary breadwinner in his household, and used that financial vulnerability to extract a waiver of his statutory right to seek compensation for unfair dismissal. The court held the agreement voidable and found Daniel had acted promptly in seeking to avoid it once he discovered the severance had been incorrectly calculated.

During the hearing, Daniel questioned the timing of his dismissal. As reported by Antigua.news, days before receiving his termination letter, a third party had visited the company's premises, confronted him about a social media video showing him alongside the late parliamentarian Asot Michael at a Caribbean Union Bank event on January 12, 2023, and warned him the video would be shown to the company's principal and that he would be fired. Daniel maintained his involvement in Michael's election campaign was conducted entirely on personal time.

The court made no specific finding as to whether political motivation played a role, as the termination letter stated exclusively economic grounds and the company was bound by that reason under the Labour Code.

The total compensation awarded amounts to EC$35,450, covering loss of protection, immediate and future loss of earnings, exemplary damages and costs. After deducting the EC$13,200 already paid in severance, shortfall and notice pay, the residual sum of EC$22,250 is due to Daniel on or before May 24, 2026.