Judge halts 'crucial' GWU meeting

A judge yesterday upheld a request by a General Workers Union official not to allow an extraordinary general meeting of one of the union's sections to take place on Monday as decreed by the central administration.

The secretary of the GWU's public sector section, Josephine Attard Sultana, on Tuesday asked the court to stop the extraordinary general meeting which would have decided on whether she would keep her job or not. She argued that the manner in which the meeting had been summoned violated the GWU's statute. Mr Justice Joseph R. Micallef ruled that if the meeting were allowed to go on, the prejudice suffered by Ms Attard Sultana would be greater than that suffered by the union were the meeting to be halted.

GWU general secretary Tony Zarb argued in a reply filed on Wednesday that Ms Attard Sultana's bid was not a democratic one.

Mr Zarb said the meeting was called following a petition signed by 37 of the 77 section delegates. This amounted to 48 per cent of delegates and thus satisfied the quota set by the statute.

He also argued that Ms Attard Sultana's writ was null because the public sector section formed part of the union and did not have the autonomous juridical personality required to take legal action.

Mr Justice Micallef ruled that Ms Attard Sultana had the right to ensure that anything that happened within the union was according to statute, especially since the meeting in question concerned her personally.

Although the issue between the parties was an internal one that ought to be decided within the organisation, such a principle was only valid so long as no internal regulations were being breached. In this case, Ms Attard Sultana was claiming a breach of statute and, therefore, juridical intervention was in order.

The judge noted that he was in no way deciding on the merits of the dispute. He would not pass judgement on the nature of Ms Attard Sultana's allegations, on the conclusions reached by an ad hoc committee to look into the petition aspect or on the interpretation of the statute.

He thus upheld Ms Attard Sultana's request.

The GWU said its central administration will meet the section's delegates who signed the petition on Monday and explain to them how the issue had unfolded.

The issue would also be discussed during a national council meeting on Tuesday afternoon, it said.

Lawyers George Abela and Lydia Zerafa represented Ms Attard Sultana.

Lawyer Aron Mifsud Bonnici represented Mr Zarb.