A number of former port workers and their heirs yesterday filed a judicial protest against the Prime Minister, the Minister for Competitiveness and Communication and the Malta Maritime Authority.

The workers and the heirs, numbering just over 500, said they had all retired from work in the harbour between 1973 and 2003.

In 1990 a committee that protected port workers had asked the government to distribute a one-time only gratuity of Lm500 to each worker from the port workers' Pension and Contingency Fund. This sum was paid to all port workers who had retired in 1990 or before that date.

In 1997 the committee had again asked the government to distribute a gratuity of Lm250 to each port worker who had retired in that year or previously. The port workers claimed that each time a gratuity was paid, this was distributed to all the workers with retroactive effect in such a manner that all port workers who had retired on earlier dates but not before 1973 received payment.

In 2003 the government had decided to distribute a gratuity of Lm500 limited to those port workers who had retired on March 1, 2003, and who had worked prior to that date. The gratuity was not distributed to port workers who had retired prior to that date.

As a result, the 2003 gratuity was not paid with retroactive effect to port workers who had retired prior to that date. This had created an injustice and was discriminatory, as those port workers who had contributed most to the funds in the Pension and Contingency Fund had received less in payment than other workers who had made fewer contributions.

The committee had presented the port workers' complaint to the authorities but no compensation was forthcoming. The port workers and their heirs formally protested against this discriminatory treatment and held the authorities liable in damages.