The Union Ħaddiema Maqgħudin has filed an injunction in a bid to halt a verification exercise to establish which union should get official recognition at the planning authority.

At present the UĦM enjoys recognition but a number of employees are also represented by the Union of Technical and Clerical Employees (UTAC) - an in-house union.

Addressing the media outside the law courts, UĦM general secretary Josef Vella this morning said this was a “pointless” exercise, as the Malta Environment and Planning Authority was at an advanced stage of demerging in two separate entities.

In the injunction, the union pointed out that if the process was not immediately halted, no verification exercise could be carried out before a year. As a result, during this time there would be no officially recognised union with whom the management could negotiate a collective agreement.

“This is just a manoeuvre by Mepa which is trying to hinder the UĦM from safeguarding employees’ conditions of work during the split,” Mr Vella said. He added that such exercise which had been requested by the Mepa management, could take up to six months to be carried out.

Mr Vella said they had no qualms about being challenged over their status, but only at the right time.

The injunction was filed against the director of employment.

MEPA REACTION

In a reaction, Mepa said that in July it had received a claim by another in house union (UTAC) that it should be the officially recognised union.

Management attempted to address the membership verification issue with UHM, however UHM declined to give any information pertaining to its members. From current payslips it became clear that the UTAC had far more paid members than the UHM.

The Mepa management chose to refer the union recognition issue to the Director of Employment and Industrial Relations for the verification exercise to be carried out under his auspices.

The MEPA Management said that it would have been impertinent to the employees and also unlawful had it chosen to ignore the claim made by the in-house union and not started the required process.