I refer to the interview with the then British High Commissioner, Louise Stanton (The Sunday Times, September 30).

I believe Ms Stanton should have substantiated her claim that the General Workers’ Union requested a seven per cent pay increase. She should also have explained her other allegations, namely that the GWU wanted a full-timer to be employed for a task that involved only four hours work a month, and her removal of recognition of the GWU.

It is unfair that Ms Stanton was portrayed as a reasonable negotiator when in reality her intention all along was to not have a union to deal with; hence the selective redundancies. In the end the British tax-payer had to pay compensation for the redundancies.

The union categorically denies ever asking for a seven per cent pay rise for employees. However the union would like to remind her that she gave a pay rise of approximately 10 per cent to employees close to her, outside negotiations with the GWU.

The union also denies asking Ms Stanton to employ a full-timer for a job which involves a few hours work each week. This was placed out of context since after the closure of the British Pensions Office and four redundancies, the GWU objected to spilling over this work to other staff at the High Commission; the British High Commission had argued that this work was no longer required in Malta.

Hence the union, on a point of principle, had requested that staff be recruited or compensation given for such a move.

Notwithstanding the suggested cost-saving indicated by Ms Stanton, the GWU provided the information to the appropriate channels with regards to the spending of taxpayers’ money. Surely cost-cutting was not truly applied across the board.

The union maintains its position that Ms Stanton made workers redundant in a selective manner in an attempt to destabilise union membership and this reflected her generally anti-union attitude.

Her anti-worker behaviour prevailed until the very last day of her presence in Malta when she invited 400 guests to her farewell but selectively left out some employees of the British High Commission.