Supreme Court Kingston staff press Chuck and Blake over compound safety and shuttered canteen

Employees at the Supreme Court on King Street in downtown Kingston say they are worried about their safety on the court compound and frustrated that they have been without a working canteen for about five years.

The workers have taken their concerns to Minister of Justice Delroy Chuck and Commissioner of Police Dr Kevin Blake. They say the canteen was shut down after being deemed a fire hazard because it sat above what they describe as a critical room in the building. Since then, they claim, no replacement has been put in place.

One staff member told the Jamaica Observer that conditions outside the court add to the strain. Each day, they said, the area is filled with people of unsound mind, and workers only feel somewhat at ease once they are inside the building.

“The other day a man punched down a member of staff out at the front. Another member of staff was spat on, one morning. There was one occasion where a man pulled a machete to attack one of the cleaners outside there. We have been speaking and it has been falling on deaf ears, so we are asking the minister of justice and the commissioner of police to intervene,” the employee said.

That worker, like others who spoke for this report, asked not to be named, saying they feared being punished for speaking out.

Another employee said problems at the court are often kept quiet, which allows them to drag on without resolution. Staff are weary of raising complaints with their superiors when nothing changes, the worker said, and that is why they turned to the media.

“The courtyard is too loose [unsecured] around the front because no judge or lawyer has to park out there. There is no security for staff until they reach the Supreme Court building. [And then] the security in the building is so strict — mind sharp staff might not even get let in. Yet still, everybody can walk in through the gate and come on the compound and do anything to the staff. Homeless people come in and catch water and vendors come in to sell on the compound.”

That employee also said there is no protection for workers who use the courtyard during the day. An auxiliary staff member was held up by a man at the gate one morning while arriving for work.

“These things need to be highlighted. Staff are complaining about their security and the situation with the street people. I don’t know if they are waiting for someone to lose their life before there is an intervention. At the moment, anybody can come in.”

Before the canteen closed roughly five years ago, employees said lunches were subsidised. Members of the public with court business could also buy meals there when it was open.

“We have had no canteen for about five or six years,” one worker said. “They said it was a fire hazard. Then they just locked it down and nothing more was said or done. People have to go on the road to fend for themselves. Lunch was subsidised and people used to eat up there. Now we only have a vending machine, which is a joke. Some of us have to be at work from morning until night.”

An attorney-at-law commented on the canteen closure, calling it unfortunate that a vending machine was left to cover some of what the canteen provided.

“Three other court facilities used to benefit from the canteen. They could have subcontracted it to someone to become a revenue earner,” the attorney said.

On the security issues, the attorney was blunt.

“I have never liked what takes place outside the court. It makes things look like a joke,” he said.