The retired officers won a court judgment against the unions and their Public Sector Workers Trust, which has been ruled as invalid. The Supreme Court has made it clear that the only beneficiaries of the 7.8 million dollars are supposed to be those teachers and public officers who were negatively affected by an increment and wage freeze from 1995 to 1997. The then Prime Minister, Manuel Esquivel, gave those teachers and public officers 450,000 shares in BTL, to ease the pain of that wage freeze.

20 years later, those shares have generated about 7.8 million dollars in proceeds, but it is being controlled by the Public Sector Workers Trust, which as we told you, has been declared invalid. The trust was ordered to stop all activity and use of those funds.

But, in the weeks that followed the court judgement, they continued with a loans program. It was being offered to all public officers who have made loan applications, and the real beneficiaries, those 600 retired public officers, weren't happy with that. They say that the Unions and their Trust are blatantly ignoring court orders which make it clear that they are to stop spending that money.

So, since the Public Sector Workers Trust was carrying on with business as usual, the retired public officers went before Justice Courtney Abel on Monday for an injunction against the trust.

The case for that proprietary injunction, or a Trust Preservation Order, was argued before the judge, and at the end, he granted the injunction, which forces the trust to stop their loans program. Now, the trustees cannot do anything with the money, unless they get the explicit permission of the court. Additionally, mediation between the two sides must take place within the next 45 days.