Industrial Court Achieves 110% Clearance Rate
The clearance rate for cases in the Industrial Court has surpassed 100%.
President of the Industrial Court of Trinidad and Tobago, Heather Seale, shared the actual figure as she addressed the opening ceremony for the Industrial Court’s 2025/2026 term on Wednesday.
She noted that in the 2023/2024 period, the Court had a case clearance rate of over 97%.
She also noted that the 2024/2025 period had surpassed the case clearance rate for 2023/2024.
« The Court disposed of 854 matters during the period. An increase of 75 more than the 779 matters disposed of for the same period in 2023/2024. During the period 2024/2025, the clearance rate was 110.77%, which is 13.76 percentage points higher than the period before 2023/2024. »
The Industrial Court President added that some cases were consolidated, resulting in 1,030 actual hearings for the past legislative term.
« During the year in review, 771 new cases were filed. This represented 32 less cases than in the 2023/2024 period. That period recorded 803 cases. During the said period, that is the period under review, 1,114 matters were listed for hearing. »
Mrs Seale complimented the Court, although there are currently no verbatim court reporters, with 25 vacancies in that area.
« Of the total number of disputes filed at the Court, both in the General and Essential Services Division, trade disputes remained the largest number of matters filed: 610 trade disputes were filed, followed by 45 complaints under the Occupational Safety and Health Act, 40 matters under the Retrenchment and Severance Benefits Act, and 27 industrial relations offences were filed. »
The Industrial Court opened offices in San Fernando in February 2025, and the opening ceremony of the 2025/2026 term was held at the Southern Academy of the Performing Arts (SAPA).
