Many policemen and women were not told they could make a claim under a call for grievances that was issued two-and-a-half years ago, suffering a second injustice, their union is claiming.
The Police Officers’ Union now wants the call for officers to come forward with their grievances to be re-issued, because they missed out on filing their claims.
The union has written to the Police Board, complaining that its members were not informed about the call, so they could never have submitted their cases for a remedy to be granted.
Police Inspector Sandro Camilleri, president of the POU, told The Sunday Times of Malta that last May it was announced that 10 police officers had received a promotion after filing claims with the Grievances Unit and having them upheld.
It was then that many union members realised that they had not even been informed about the call.
According to a circular issued in March 2014, the government took the decision to set up a grievances unit for civil servants.
Officers were not notified about the call and many of them failed to file their claims. As a result, they were suffering yet another injustice
Principal Permanent Secretary Mario Cutajar gave clear instructions that the call must be brought to the attention of government workers.
But despite this explicit instruction, police officers were not notified about the call and many of them failed to file their claims, Inspector Camilleri said. As a result, they were suffering yet another injustice.
The union management held a meeting with the Home Affairs Ministry about the matter, but since there have been no developments, they have written to the Police Board asking for a remedy.
Inspector Camilleri also said that when the Grievances Unit was set up for a limited time period, the law granting police officers the right to join a union had not yet been passed, so it was not able to make its claim at the time.
The union has been informed that the Police Board, chaired by retired judge Franco Depasquale, is going to look into the matter.
Questions sent to the Home Affairs Ministry by this newspaper remained unanswered at the time of writing.