Click to view full size

The Privy Council has reserved its decision in a case that could determine whether charges filed by the Occupational Safety and Health Authority and Agency (OSHA) in several OSH-related cases, including the Paria diving tragedy, can proceed.

At the centre of the issue is whether OSHA missed a legal deadline by filing charges more than six months after the alleged breach. The outcome of the case involving the University of the West Indies and OSHA, argued before Lords Lloyd-Jones, Sales, Burrows, Richards and Lady Simler on June 25, will directly affect whether those charges in other cases are deemed valid.

The Paria charges in the Industrial Court are effectively stayed, pending the Privy Council's decision, while the criminal charges in the magistrates’ court will again come up for hearing in October.