MIA ordered to pay suspended employee €10,000

Malta International Airport has been ordered to pay an employee who had been suspended from work on half pay more than €10,000.

Frederick Attard had been suspended from work while disciplinary action was taken against him but the charges against him were found to be unfounded and he had been acquitted by the company's appeal board in March 2005.

Mr Attard claimed that he had been suspended on half pay while the proceedings against him were heard and that he had not benefitted from shift allowances and other benefits during this period.

The court was requested to order MIA to pay Mr Attard Lm5,573.40 by way of half his salary for the period of suspension and the damages he had sustained as a result of the disciplinary proceedings.

MIA contested this action and claimed that Mr Attard had been paid the half of his salary due to him during the course of the proceedings. It said that as for Mr Attard's claim for payment of benefits on the grounds that he had not worked any overtime or shifts while on suspension, MIA said Mr Attard was not entitled to payment for work he had not performed.

Delivering judgement in the First Hall of the Civil Court, Mr Justice Lino Farrugia Sacco said Mr Attard was entitled to receive payment of half his salary for the period of his suspension .

The court also ruled that Mr Attard could not be made to suffer losses when he had always worked overtime and benefitted from allowances. It was MIA which had not allowed Mr Attard to carry out this work during the period when he was wrongly suspended from work.

It ordered MIA to pay Mr Attard E10,004.50.