The General Workers’ Union is insisting it is granted recognition as representing the absolute majority of employees at Bank of Valletta, on the strength of a verification exercise carried out by the Industrial Tribunal.

The call was made yesterday by GWU secretary general Tony Zarb in a news conference outside the bank’s head office in Santa Venera.

His appeal was made in the wake of the ruling given on Monday by the tribunal in a dispute between the GWU and the Malta Union of Bank Employees. The issue concerns some 1,400 employees in the grades of clerk, supervisor and senior manager.

MUBE president William Portelli told Times of Malta that they had no qualms accepting the verdict of this official verification exercise, adding this was the only mechanism they trusted.

However, Mr Portelli said that before pronouncing itself the MUBE was seeking assurances that the figures given by the Director of Employment tallied with those presented by the bank and the union’s internal records. Meanwhile Mr Zarb expressed reservations about the official mechanism to establish which union represented the majority of the workers, saying they were in talks with social partners to put forward proposals to overhaul the system. However he declined to give further details.

GWU section secretary Charles Galea complained that rather than focusing on improving the working conditions of its members, the union was being forced to dedicate its energies to this issue.

Asked by this newspaper for its reaction, a BOV spokesman said yesterday that the bank was not in a position to comment.