A court has issued a warrant of prohibitory injunction stopping Bank of Valletta from negotiating a new collective agreement for workers in its clerical grades with the General Workers Union.

The GWU recently said it had been granted recognition for all grades, including the clerical grades previously represented by the Malta Union of Bank Employees (MUBE).

The MUBE is contesting the bank's decision and it filed the application for the issue of the warrant.

The court heard that a conciliation meeting had been held with the Director of Industrial and Employment Relations to establish which union represented the majority of bank employees, but BOV had unilaterally decided to withdraw its recognition of the MUBE.

BOV had also told the MUBE that the GWU had produced sufficient evidence to show that it had an absolute majority of managerial and clerical employees. According to the bank, it had engaged a notary as an independent verifier of this majority status.

Madam Justice Schembri Orland said that the notary had not carried out any verifications but had merely served as a witness to the declarations made by the GWU.

The court added that MUBE was not given any notice that the bank was going to proceed to a unilateral verification of the facts. The bank had not awaited the outcome of an independent and impartial process but had decided to take unilateral action to award recognition to the GWU.

No union, said Madam Justice Schembri Orland, could be divested of its rights to represent its members except on serious grounds. The MUBE, said the court, had proven that it would suffer irremediable prejudice if the warrant was not issued.

The court therefore upheld the MUBE's request and prohibited BOV from negotiating with the General Workers Union on a new collective agreement for the bank's employees in the managerial and clerical grades