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Karl Schembri
The Department of Industrial and Employment Relations has asked the Police Commissioner to press charges against the Chief Executive of Malta International Airport plc, Peter Bolech, after the company stopped paying the wage of one of its officers since last January.
Sources said the department had been in contact with MIA over the last months in a bid to get the company to pay the salary due to Senior Officer Fredrick Attard, which was stopped last January, after the company had started disciplinary proceedings against the employee. Earlier this month, the department requested the police to start proceedings against the company in the absence of an agreement.
When contacted, MIA spokesperson Rosette Fenech said the case concerned “a normal human resources litigation” with Attard.
“Attard had falsely spread the word that there were passengers from China about to land in Malta during the SARS outbreak, last year” Fenech Said. “It was an obscene and irresponsible act.”
But with the case still being heard by the board of discipline, Attard is claiming that disciplinary proceedings against him should have been stopped pending a decision, in line with the company’s collective agreement.
Problems between Attard and the company date back to 1991, when he has been found to have suffered from political discrimination. The Tribunal for the Investigation of Injustices ruled last year that Attard suffered from political discrimination at MIA, having been systematically refused promotions within the company while other people less qualified were given direct appointments without calls for application.
The sentence decreed by Mr Justice Lino Farrugia Sacco indicates that while Attard was transferred to the Archaeology Museum in 1991, when he was Duty Management Officer in the Civil Aviation Department, the then Air Terminal Board of Management (which paved the way for the setting up of MIA) recruited executives from outside the company who were much less qualified than him.
Attard, a former General Workers’ Union shop steward and a Labour Party member, was also refused an interview following a call for applications for executive posts in November 1991, while a few who were interviewed were given the job.
The judge had heard that when, in 1995, the company created the temporary post of ‘senior officer,’ Attard was again refused a promotion, which was given to employees lacking the qualifications and “who were hardcore Nationalists (Nazzjonalisti tal-qalba).” This meant that Attard lost his seniority within the company.
The judge ruled that the employee had to be given compensation and appointed an Air Terminal Executive, backdated to 1992, but so far the company has refused to implement the tribunal’s decision, claiming that its findings are inaccurate.
The company is also contesting the tribunal’s competence in view of the fact that MA is no longer controlled by the government, against the Attorney General’s advice.
In its financial statements last year, MIA noted that 18 claims were filed by employees of the company with the tribunal for the investigation of injustices for unfair promotions, bringing the total compensation claim to around Lm90,000, apart from other unquantified claims.
“No provision has been made in these financial statements for any liability as in the opinion of the directors all claims are unfounded,” the directors said in last year’s financial statements.
Meanwhile, in a separate tribunal judgement given last week, it was ruled that MIA had similarly discriminated against Joseph Cassar by refusing to promote him to executive despite his seniority and long career at the airport.
The judge heard that Cassar was discriminated against because of his involvement in the Labour Party and within the General Workers’ Union.
The judge ruled that Cassar should be given the appointment of Safety and Security Executive backdated to 1991, together with the difference in salary since that year.
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