The police and the government approved the secondment of a police inspector to work full-time with a newly formed police union under the auspices of the General Workers Union, eight months before the same union was even registered.
According to public service rules, a union with fewer than 1,000 members can only avail itself of a public officer for 20 hours a week.
However, police inspector Sandro Camilleri is working on a full-time basis at the GWU’s Workers Memorial Building. The police have also started the process of seconding another police officer with the same union.
Apart from the recently registered police union of the GWU, the original Malta Police Association (MPA), set up many years ago, passed the legal process of becoming a trade union and is also vying for recognition.
However, despite having double the number of members of the GWU’s police union, the MPA is facing many bureaucratic obstacles to receive the same treatment, according to sources. For example, the MPA has not been assigned any public officer yet to work within the union.
Confirming that Inspector Camilleri has been assigned to the GWU on special paid leave from last March, Police Commissioner Michael Cassar did not explain how it was approved when the union was only registered eight months later.
Although the Commissioner quoted the Public Service Management Code to justify Mr Camilleri’s approval, the same rules state that unions with less than 1,000 members are not entitled to full-time secondments. The GWU’s police union has 756 members. On the other hand, the MPA currently has 1,350 members.
Mr Camilleri’s secondment was also approved by the head of the Civil Service Mario Cutajar. Believing it was being “clearly discriminated against”, the MPA sent a request to the government’s Industrial Relations Department on November 2, asking whether the GWU’s police union was a registered trade union according to the law.
Ironically, the department’s director, Sandra Gatt, replied to the MPA’s request stating that the GWU’s police union was registered on November 2, the same day the MPA’s request was made.
Asked whether he received an official request to recognise the MPA as the official police union, a spokesman for the Police Commissioner confirmed the request.
“However, we are still awaiting a decision from the government’s Department of Employment and Industrial relations,” the spokesman said.
Asked to confirm reports received by this newspaper that applications for membership in the GWU’s police union were being distributed directly from the office of the Police Commissioner, the spokesman said: “Since the incumbent Commissioner has been in office, this did not occur”.
The Sunday Times of Malta is informed that this was common practice under Commissioner Peter Paul Zammit and former acting Police Commissioner Raymond Zammit.