Education Minister Dolores Cristina yesterday filed an appeal against a tribunal decision that found a former ministry employee was unfairly dismissed.

Ex-policewoman Marisa Bartolo was awarded €3,900 after she was dismissed as a programme co-ordinator at Conservatorio Vincenzo Bugeja, a home for destitute young women. In the appeal, also filed on behalf of the home, the minister said Ms Bartolo was made redundant and not unfairly dismissed.

Furthermore, the minister was not responsible for Ms Bartolo’s employment because when her application for the case to be heard was presented, Ms Cristina was not in charge of the home.

The minister said she was constrained to issue a letter advising her position as coordinator would be suspended pending serious allegations, which the tribunal ignored.

Ms Bartolo allegedly restrained residents with handcuffs in an environment that was meant to rehabilitate vulnerable girls and this behaviour was unacceptable, the minister said in the appeal. In one instance, Ms Bartolo allegedly lifted a chair while a resident was sitting on it and then threw it at the young woman. Lawyer Fiorella Fenech Vella from the Attorney General’s Office and lawyer Joseph Bonello signed the appeal.