News October 29 2026

Supreme Court blocks PICA from terminating senior director Mollie Plummer-Henry

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The Passport and Immigration Citizenship Agency (PICA) office on Constant Spring Road, St Andrew. The Passport and Immigration Citizenship Agency (PICA) office on Constant Spring Road, St Andrew. Photo - File

The Supreme Court has granted an interim injunction blocking the Passport and Immigration Citizenship Agency (PICA) from terminating the employment contract of one of its Senior Directors Mollie Plummer-Henry.

The injunction was granted on Wednesday following the ex parte hearing of an urgent application by attorneys representing Plummer-Henry.

An ex parte hearing typically involves only the person making the application.

The application for the injunction is part of a lawsuit Plummer-Henry filed against the Attorney General and another PICA employee, Kenton Senior, claiming “unfair/unjustifiable dismissal”, defamation, breaches of the Data Protection Act and “misfeasance in public office”.

The injunction will remain in place until November 18 when an inter partes hearing is scheduled to take place in the Supreme Court involving all parties.

The lawsuit, which was filed by the law firm Chen, Green & Company, follows a decision by PICA not to renew the employment contract of Plummer-Henry, who was the senior director in charge of the agency’s investigation, intelligence and surveillance division.

It also stems from allegations widely circulated on social media about Plummer-Henry.

Through a memorandum from PICA chief executive officer Garth Williams, dated October 23, 2026, Plummer-Henry was notified that her “last day of employment will be on October 31st 2026”, she revealed in court documents seen by The Gleaner.

She contends, however, that she is a permanent employee of PICA “whose contract was unfairly and illegally changed to a 3-year renewable contract”.

“At no time that the agency required me to sign a contract of employment was I given any opportunity to obtain independent legal advice and no account of my permanent state of employment was considered, or taken into account, when I was required to be engaged as a contractually engaged member of staff,” Plummer-Henry claimed.

The PICA director said she had “a legitimate expectation” that her contract would be renewed because of her above-average on-the-job performance appraisals, her long years of service to the agency and the trend of renewals for the last two periods.

“PICA has not given a justifiable reason for my termination nor have I received a fair hearing or an opportunity to be heard. No principles of natural justice were followed before my contract was terminated and the manner of termination is especially embarrassing and degrading for a member of staff who has given over a decade of service to PICA,” she contends.

Plummer-Henry claimed, too, that through the “negligence of PICA my highly-confidential and privileged information was leaked to the second defendant Kenton Senior, an employee of PICA who has been on interdiction for the last four years”.

She alleged that Senior used the information to make defamatory remarks to several senior officials.

“I am informed by my attorneys and do verily believe that said leak was a breach of the Data Protection Act and PICA is partly or entirely liable for the damage I have sustained as a result of the defamatory statements made against me,” she claimed.

- Livern Barrett

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