Police association calls for setting up of union

The police association yesterday publicly called for the setting up of a police union, having raised the issue internally six years go.

As things stand, police officers are barred from forming a union by law but most officers felt their rights were not being protected and it was time the law was amended. The association said that, "after all, if the conditions of the force were improved, it would result in a better and more efficient service that would benefit the country".

If such a union were set up, the association said, restrictions and conditions would have to be imposed to suit a disciplined force so as not to threaten national security through industrial action. Despite the support of the General Workers' Union, the Union Ħaddiema Magħqudin and the Labour Party, the issue remains solely in the hands of the government, which, is not favourable to the idea.

In a seminar about the subject organised by the GWU last month, Police Commissioner John Rizzo was careful in not taking a stand. He said he did not want to be dragged into a situation where police officers did not follow orders on grounds that what they had been told to do was outside their job description.

"I am not giving my opinion about whether the police should be allowed to form part of a union or not but just that there is more to the issue of whether they should be allowed to strike or not," he said.