A decision handed down this week by District Court Judge Thomas K. Moore could mean the end of the Virgin Islands Wrongful Discharge Act as it now stands.
Attorney David Bornn, who has been working for many years to revise the act, said it appears that Moore has, in effect, "thrown out the Wrongful Discharge Act in its entirety on grounds that it interferes with the National Labor Relations Act.
This could take us back to at will employment, Bornn said. At will employment means by contract between employer and employee.
The Wrongful Discharge Act, which has come under strong attack by many employers and the territory's two chambers of commerce, strictly limits the legal grounds for dismissing an employee to nine causes.
A 1996 amendment to the law created further restrictions by forcing private-sector employers to engage in collective bargaining in order to amend contracts between employee and employer, whether or not the employees are members of a union. That amendment put the law in violation of federal labor policy.
Moore, in a 27-page memorandum, dismissed portions of a suit brought under the Wrongful Discharge Act based on his opinion that the local act is pre-empted by federal labor law.
Moore s findings stemmed from an action in the District Court of St. Thomas brought by Jacqueline Bell against Chase Manhattan Bank and Richard Brown, a former Chase official.
Moore said in his memorandum that the amendment made in February 1996 to the Wrongful Discharge Act, which in effect forced all private employees and employers to join a union in order to modify the nine statutory grounds for dismissal, violates a section of the National Labor Relations Act by interfering with the freedom of the private employers and employees to enter into work relationships without engaging in the collective bargaining process.
In a second and separate analysis, Moore said the Wrongful Discharge Act violates national labor policy by interfering with the free play of economic forces in the private labor market which Congress has intentionally left unregulated.
Bornn said a District Court decision supersedes any Territorial Court decisions on this or other matters.
But Charles E. Engeman, attorney for Chase Bank and Brown, said the Territorial Court is not necessarily bound by the District Court decision.
My belief is this should be enforced, he said, but added it will probably have to go to the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals.
Susan Bruch-Moorehead, Bell's attorney, will be off-island until Feb. 18, a secretary said Friday.
Nick Pourzal, managing director of Marriott Frenchman s Reef, said, The Wrongful Discharge Act is a law that truly hampers the hiring of locals by many people, especially youth without experience.
This is because if it doesn t work out, the employers are stuck with those hires, Pourzal said, echoing the concern of many local business people.
Editor's note: For the full text of Moore's decision, see the Data section of Community.
