Rosan vs 'Quito' case transferred to Labour Minister
Rosan approached the Labour Department seeking redress after alleging that he was fired from the band Quito and the Edge in February 2016. Rosan said he was fired following a post he made on Facebook criticising Minister for Communications and Works Hon Mark H. Vanterpool for the cruise pier development project.
However, in correspondences to the Labour Department, manager of the band Enriquito Rymer said Rosan was fired because he was not making the grade, saying that he was given numerous chances to learn the songs and play them as desired. Rosan provided text messages and Facebook posts to support his contention that his firing was for his comments made on his personal Facebook account against the Works Minister.
Rosan told this news site that he received word that a letter had been prepared for him by the Labour Department and thus he shared it with us.
It read in part: “Please note that the Labour Commissioner's Office has concluded that your matter will be transferred to the Minister [for] Natural Resources and Labour for further action. This action is taken pursuant to section 26 (3) of the 2010 Labour Code, which states 'Where the Commissioner fails to achieve a settlement within thirty days from the date of reference under subsection (2) or such longer period as the parties may agree, he or she shall transmit the matter with a full report on the matter, to the Minister.'”
Political or Musical?
Rosan in a brief comment to this news site said that it was his impression that the persons at the Labour Department were hopeful of resolving the matter at their level. However, he said that it was not expected that Enriquito Rymer would have abruptly left the meeting after presenting a written document to them outlining his side of the story and saying that Rosan was fired for not playing the right music and that the issue was being made political when it was just musical.
'Quito' Rymer in his letter also called the entire episode a waste of his time and threatened legal action if Rosan continued to "defame" his character.
Rosan said he wanted to satisfy himself by going through the entire process and as a last recourse he will approach the court, once all other avenues fail.
According to Rosan, he was asked to check in about a week's time to see where the process is. He said once the Ministry wraps up they will write him.
Rosan said he has all of the records of financial exchanges between himself and Enriquito Rymer which aptly demonstrates that there was a contract and, according to his contention, that contract was broken when he was fired for what he called political reasons. “A contract could be verbal or written and the way to prove that is by documentation...if you write a cheque to me for work done...that constitutes a contract,” he said.
Rosan said he is fully prepared to go to court on the issue but wanted to exhaust all other avenues for redress with the relevant documentation to show before doing so.
See earlier stories here:
http://www.virginislandsnewsonline.com/en/news/rosan-takes-band-firing-matter-to-labour-department
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