Court upholds impartiality doubts over board of discipline

The Gozo Channel company has been prohibited from appointing its deputy chairman and a Finance Ministry official on an internal board of discipline to review and decide the future of ferry captain Mario Grech.

Magistrate Anthony Ellul said the doubts about the impartiality of these two members of the board, raised by Capt. Grech, were “objectively justified” and upheld his request for an injunction filed in the Gozo courts.

A year ago, Capt. Grech had filed a judicial protest against the ferry company, claiming, among other things, major flaws in safety revolving around life-saving equipment, emergency training and the presence of the Legionella bacteria in the water supply of the ferries.

A board of inquiry, set up by the Finance Ministry, had dismissed all of Capt. Grech’s allegations expect for one – that a forged certificate had been issued to a boatswain.

In June, Capt. Grech was informed that he must appear before a board of discipline made up of two directors and a lawyer and that he had been suspended on full pay.

However, he was later informed that Gozo Channel had appointed its deputy chairman Vince Mifsud, also the CEO of Mimcol, and Edwin Mamo, chairman of Kalaxlokk and consultant to the Collective Bargaining Unit within the Finance Ministry. A third person, appointed by Capt. Grech, would also sit on the board.

But even though the disciplinary board was not a court or a tribunal, the principle of fairness still applied, Magistrate Ellul said in his decree which he handed down on Friday.

“Although it is an internal board, it doesn’t mean that the employee doesn’t have the right to a fair hearing before an impartial board,” he said.

Also, Capt. Grech would lose his job if found guilty. “The board’s composition is crucial for the employee to be given a fair and transparent trial,” the magistrate said.

Magistrate Ellul pointed out that the circumstances of this particular case were different to other disciplinary cases. In this case, Capt. Grech, who held one of the highest ranks in the company, had made serious allegations about the health and safety of the passengers and the crew, which were publicised when he filed a judicial protest.

Although the court was convinced that these allegations had no commercial impact on the government-owned company, they still remained serious.

He noted that because of the publicity given to the case, Gozo Channel had consulted with the Finance Ministry. “As a result, the nomination of Mr Mamo was not opportune,” Magistrate Ellul said.

While pointing out that he was not passing judgment on the people involved, Magistrate Ellul said he could not understand how Mr Mifsud was on the disciplinary board when he was on the same board that had accused Capt. Grech of serious failings.

As a result, he prohibited Gozo Channel from nominating Mr Mamo and Mr Mifsud to the disciplinary board or from sitting on a board and taking disciplinary action against him.

Lawyer Kevin Mompalao appeared for Capt. Grech and lawyer Andrew Borg Cardona for Gozo Channel.