Judge rules GWU must respect collective agreement provisions

A court yesterday ruled against the General Workers' Union and held that a collective agreement in connection with Dragonara Casino employees was binding upon the union.

The judgment was delivered by Mr Justice Raymond C. Pace, sitting in the First Hall of the Civil Court, in a case filed by Dragonara Casino Ltd against the GWU.

The company told the court that in July 2002 it had concluded a collective agreement with the Casino Employees' Union, which, at the time, represented the casino employees. In terms of this agreement, any dispute between the employer and staff had to be referred to conciliation proceedings and arbitration to seek a solution. The GWU had, in January 2004, undertaken to honour this agreement.

However, the company added that the union had later refused to honour the collective agreement. The court was requested to declare that the agreement was still valid and to order the union to abide by its terms and conditions.

Mr Justice Pace pointed out that the statute of the Casino Employees' Union (which had signed the agreement) did not require the collective agreement to be approved by its members. Thus, the union had not been bound to seek the approval of its members in order to render the collective agreement valid. In fact, the agreement had not been approved by the union's general meeting. This was contrary to the submissions made by the GWU in the sense that a reservation had been made for the agreement to be approved by a general meeting.

The agreement of July 2002 was binding upon the parties to it, the court ruled, particularly in view of the fact that the president and general secretary of the union were authorised, in terms of the union's statute, to conclude it.

Mr Justice Pace added that in August 2002 the union and the company had referred an industrial dispute to arbitration in terms of the agreement and that the union had agreed to this. It had also been proven that the GWU had undertaken to abide by all agreements entered into by the Casino Employees' Union.

The court concluded by finding in favour of the company and ordered the GWU to observe the terms and conditions of the agreement signed in July 2002.