A court has thrown out a request filed by the Union Haddiema Maghqudin to stop Malta Public Transport (Operations) Limited from negotiating a new collective agreement for drivers after it failed to convince the court on its need. 

Mr Justice Silvio Meli ruled that the union had failed to justify the need of the injunction it was requesting in its attempt to stop the transport company from negotiating a new collective agreement for bus drivers with the General Workers' Union. 

The court said the justifications provided for at law had not been satisfied. 

Last month, the UHM had filed an application in court for an injunction after it claimed that the absolute majority of bus drivers formerly employed with Arriva, had switched unions and had joined the UHM. 

However, the GWU continued to insist that it still enjoyed support of the majority of bus drivers.

The two unions squabbled on which of the two enjoyed sole recognition of the drivers so the UHM attempted to get a court decree stopping negotiations on the new collective agreement until the issue is settled. 

The matter was referred to the Industrial Tribunal which then referred it to the union watchdog, leading the GWU to file and obtain an inhibition halting a verification process to see which of the two enjoyed recognition. 

The MPT told the court that it made no difference which of the two unions came to the negotiating table and that it got caught in the squabble between the two major unions. The verification process could take very long and there was a possibility that the impasse could be indefinite. 

It told the court that in similar cases in the past, negotiations continued with the union that had enjoyed sole recognition before the impasse came about. 

Without going into the merits, the court ruled that the question of recognition could not be assumed, more so because of the pending verification process. The court therefore found that the UHM had not managed to justify the need for its request for an injunction and therefore turned it down.

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