Women will be chairing Industrial Tribunal sittings for the first time.

The number of people appointed to chair sittings of the Industrial Tribunal has been increased by six to stand at 14.

Ninety-six cases were referred to the tribunal, which deals with complaints raised by workers regarding unfair dismissal or discrimination, in the first 11 months of this year. These included 63 claims of unfair dismissal.

In the period under review, the tribunal held 284 sittings.

Those appointed to chair tribunal sittings are: Martin Fenech, George Borg Cardona, Franco Masini, Leslie Cuschieri, Antoine De Giovanni, Joseph Bonnici, Edmund Tabone and Harold Walls, Vanessa Vella, Mary Gaerty, Marlene Seychell, Joan Haber, Charles Cassar and Chris Attard, the last six being the new appointees.

The Department of Industrial and Employment Relations, which aims to protect workers and strengthen employer-employee relationships, carried out 727 inspections at different workplaces where over 20,000 workers were employed.

Almost 1,700 employees were interviewed and 214 irregularities were noted. A total of 686 cases were investigated by the department and the police were asked to open 120 criminal cases against employers for not paying workers the salaries owed to them.