A director at one of Malta’s leading communications companies has asked a court to stop his employer from taking disciplinary procedures against him for sexual harassment, claiming he would not receive a fair hearing.

His client was not afraid of undergoing procedures but he wanted a fair hearing

Engineer Joseph Agius filed a request for an injunction in late May and it was temporarily upheld, halting the disciplinary hearing until a permanent decision was handed down.

In a sitting yesterday, lawyer Chris Cilia, representing Mr Agius, said that while his client was denying the allegation outright, he was insisting that he would not receive a fair hearing.

The members of the disciplinary board were nominated by the victim, Michelle Bonnici, as the chief officer of human resources, and this prejudiced the case from the very start, he argued.

The proceedings would be initiated by the very person who was making the claim. Although she herself had not signed the documentation, it was all was signed by her subordinates.

The lawyer said that his client was not afraid of undergoing procedures but he wanted a fair hearing. He proposed that the board be made up of a person nominated by the company, a person nominated by the union of the alleged victim and a chairman nominated jointly by the complainant and accused.

Dr Cilia described Ms Bonnici as very powerful, saying his client’s reservations were very real.

In response, lawyer Andrew Borg Cardona said the disciplinary proceedings were administered, in this instance, by the Board of Directors and Ms Bonnici had no authority to nominate anyone, had not nominated anyone and, even in the future, due to a change in procedure, would not nominate anyone to the board. Mr Agius’s fears were therefore unfounded.

Lawyer Francis Galea Salomone also appeared for Go Mobile.