Trade unionist claims three months' wages from GWU

A trade unionist is claiming wages and payment for unused vacation leave from his former employer.

Malta Dockers Union official Karmenu Vella has filed a case in the first hall of the Civil Court against the General Workers Union, his former employer, claiming that it did not pay him three months wages due to him according to contract and for 193 days of unused vacation leave due between 1997 and 2005.

In the GWU, Mr Vella was an official and the former secretary of the union’s services and media section. He resigned in September 2006 due to disagreement with the union’s central administration.

In his resignation, Mr Vella had publicly declared that what the GWU preached should not be done by employers was being done by itself with its officials and employees.

In his court case, Mr Vella is claiming that according to a memorandum of understanding dated September 1999 and which regulated the conditions of work of GWU officials such as himself, secretaries who terminated their job from the GWU were entitled to €5,104.14 or the equivalent of their final three months’ wages.

Mr Vella is also claiming €16,598 from the GWU, the equivalent of his unused vacation leave.

The GWU has been requested to pay its dues, including through official letters, several times in the past years.