The head of the civil service has refused to give details on the controversial secondment of a police inspector to work full-time with a newly formed union.

The Sunday Times of Malta reported that Police Inspector Sandro Camilleri was last month given the green light by the office of Principal Permanent Secretary Mario Cutajar and the Police Commissioner to start working full-time at the General Workers’ Union eight months before the police union was registered. Mr Cutajar is a former deputy secretary general of the GWU.

In contrast, the Malta Police Association, set up more than 20 years ago and which became a fully registered union recently, is still awaiting the approval of a secondment. The MPA claims to have doubled the number of members registered with the GWU’s police union.

When approached about the matter, the Police Commissioner confirmed that Mr Camilleri’s secondment had been approved by the Office of the Prime Minister in line with the Public Service Management Code (PSMC).

When it was pointed out that the PSMC rules did not allow this type of ‘transfer’, the Police Commissioner noted that the secondment was approved by the Prime Minister’s Office “on grounds of public policy as per standing agreement between the government and the unions prior to 2013”.

Asked for a copy of the agreement, the Police Commissioner replied that “it is best that questions be asked to the Public Administration Human Resources Office at the OPM”.

Sources close to the major trade unions told this newspaper, beyond the PSMC rules, they were not aware of any such agreement as that mentioned by the Police Commissioner. “The agreements we know of are those in black and white and which are included in the PSMC rules,” a high official of one major union said. “If there is any other kind of agreement, it must be a secret one and we don’t know about it,” he added.

The PSMC rules lay down that unions having fewer than 1,000 members, as is the case with the GWU’s police union, are eligible to have a public official seconded with them for 20 hours a week.

Mr Camilleri was seconded on a full-time basis as from last March and the union was registered with the Industrial and Employment Relations Department on November 2, declaring a 756-strong membership.

Mr Cutajar was asked whether Mr Camilleri’s secondment was in line with the PSMC rules, however, no replies were given by the time of writing, notwithstanding reminders via e-mail.

He was also asked to provide this newspaper with a copy of the agreement with the unions under which Mr Camilleri’s secondment was approved but, again, there was no reply.

On its part, the GWU accused this newspaper of inaccuracies and insisted that Mr Camilleri’s secondment was regular, arguing that “the GWU fully qualifies to have seconded personnel from the public service”.

When asked to declare under which rules was the secondment approved and on which date was its police union registered, no reply was forthcoming.

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