Friday, 17th April 2009
Unconstitutional and unethical
Remember the very serious issue last September / October when it was found out that the passwords of around 20,000 civil servants and users of the Government’s email services had been hacked and stolen? Then the issue of personal privacy and data protection along with that of the role of the state as Big Brother had been raised.
Surprise, surprise this issue is with us once more, courtesy of the Director of Industrial and Employment Relations (DIER).
Last week, the DIER declared that the Malta Dockers Union (MDU) had the backing of the majority of port workers and that, therefore, the management of the Freeport and the Maritime Authority should recognize it for collective bargaining purposes.
The DIER arrived at this conclusion in a very unconventional way.
He carried out a verification exercise in which he sent for the port workers one by one and asked them which union they belonged to.
That is not the way union recognition is decided. To begin with, recognition disputes are not all that common in Malta but in the few instances where there have been recognition issues between trade unions the accepted practice has been that of organizing a secret ballot which is fully transparent and whose outcome would settle the issue to everyone’s satisfaction rather than escalate it. This is the accepted custom and practice even though the Industrial and Employment Relations Act is practically silent about this matter.
The General Workers Union, from which the MDU members had broken away some four years back, asked to be recognized after the port workers had returned to its fold by renewing their membership within it. When the GWU believed that it had the support of the majority of the port workers it asked to be recognized. Instead, the management pulled out all its stops as it appeared bent on ensuring that it would not have to deal with the GWU.
What has happened now is that the constitutional right to freedom of association and the laws on data protection and privacy have been blatantly flouted as if nothing were amiss.
In a democracy workers are supposed to be free to join any trade union of their choice without their having to be subjected to interrogation by government officials or their union asked to divulge their names. This only happens under totalitarian regimes where the state acts as Big Brother and ordinary citizens are kept under constant surveillance.
This should not, therefore, be the case with Malta as a fully paid up EU member state and where workers rights are protected by the EU’s charter itself.
Given this we should all speak out and make our voice heard that the way this recognition issue has been handled leaves very much to be desired since it is both unconstitutional and unethical.
RSS
Comments
You are wrong and you know it. If you want to do some good to your precious PN you must not be so radical.
The Prime Minister said that the government would seek legal advice and then act accordingly. The case, he said, dated back 38 years and one had to verify facts.
Dr Sant said that this act by Mr Debarro was public information in the UK under the Freedom of Information Act, and it did not follow that the case should be forgotten because it was 38 years old.
Mr Debarro is at present responsible for arrangements for the repatriation of illegal immigrants
Hate to take you back 20 years ago, but where were you then? Remember Furtu Selvatico?
A.Having Reverend Peter Serracino Inglot, a priest, playing a very active partisan political role to the extent of boasting, on the state television, of his role as script writer of speeches for the PN’s former Leader.
B.Having the same priest forming part of a political party’s strategy team.
C.Having a priest and a party leader concocting a political\religious plan to achieve maximum mileage out of a human tragedy.
D.Having a church with a watchful eye to keep left-oriented-priests under control and allow right-wing-priests to take an active part in politics.
Truely, the Democracy issue has, in my books, surpassed that of the economy as Malta's no 1 priority issue.
I am by no means trying to deny that the ransacking of EFA and his family’s home wasn’t one of the darkest days in our political history, nor am I trying to help for that episode to be forgotten, my reluctance to accept stems from the method, time and place in which it was presented.
The brutal murder of Karen Grech, the attempted murder of Dr. Chetcuti-Caruana, the bombs placed outside the Sliema Police station, the residence of Albert Mizzi, Major Grech and Laurence Pullicino, and the ransacking of J.Debono-Grech’s residence were also part of the history when Raymond Caruana was killed, yet Xarabank chose to ignore and portray EFA and his supporters as the only victims of that terbulant era.
Michael Briguglio ddeskriva l-ħruġ ta’ mandat ta’ sekwestru mill-Malta Freeport kontra l-GWU fl-ammont ta’ €1 miljun li jikkostitwixxi attakk fuq it-trejdunjoniżmu. Ta’ min jgħid li n-nuqqas ta’ likwidità li ġab dan il-mandat ta’ sekwestru fuq l-assi tal-GWU jfisser fost l-oħrajn li din mhux se tkun tista’ tif¬finanzja l-operat tagħ¬ha kif ukoll l-obbligi finanzjarji li għandha, u dan b’riperkussjonijiet katastrofiċi għaliha, kif ukoll għall-impjegati u l-membri tagħha.
I’m not very familiar with trade union democracy but surely that can’t be right, can it?