Unconstitutional and unethical

Remember the very serious issue last September / October when it was found out that the passwords of around 20,000 civil servants and users of the Government’s email services had been hacked and stolen? Then the issue of personal privacy and data protection along with that of the role of the state as Big Brother had been raised.

Surprise, surprise this issue is with us once more, courtesy of the Director of Industrial and Employment Relations (DIER).

Last week, the DIER declared that the Malta Dockers Union (MDU) had the backing of the majority of port workers and that, therefore, the management of the Freeport and the Maritime Authority should recognize it for collective bargaining purposes.

The DIER arrived at this conclusion in a very unconventional way.

He carried out a verification exercise in which he sent for the port workers one by one and asked them which union they belonged to.

That is not the way union recognition is decided. To begin with, recognition disputes are not all that common in Malta but in the few instances where there have been recognition issues between trade unions the accepted practice has been that of organizing a secret ballot which is fully transparent and whose outcome would settle the issue to everyone’s satisfaction rather than escalate it. This is the accepted custom and practice even though the Industrial and Employment Relations Act is practically silent about this matter.

The General Workers Union, from which the MDU members had broken away some four years back, asked to be recognized after the port workers had returned to its fold by renewing their membership within it. When the GWU believed that it had the support of the majority of the port workers it asked to be recognized. Instead, the management pulled out all its stops as it appeared bent on ensuring that it would not have to deal with the GWU.

What has happened now is that the constitutional right to freedom of association and the laws on data protection and privacy have been blatantly flouted as if nothing were amiss.

In a democracy workers are supposed to be free to join any trade union of their choice without their having to be subjected to interrogation by government officials or their union asked to divulge their names. This only happens under totalitarian regimes where the state acts as Big Brother and ordinary citizens are kept under constant surveillance.

This should not, therefore, be the case with Malta as a fully paid up EU member state and where workers rights are protected by the EU’s charter itself.

Given this we should all speak out and make our voice heard that the way this recognition issue has been handled leaves very much to be desired since it is both unconstitutional and unethical.