Only four employees refused to take up teleworking at the Malta Tourism Authority after new guidelines came into force, the agency said.

In a statement clarifying its position on family-friendly measures after a storm erupted on teleworking arrangements, the agency said new rules came into force following agreement with the unions last month.

The statement comes as trade unions accuse the authority of acting unilaterally when it ordered employees to stop working from home and return to the office with immediate effect.

The General Workers’ Union and the Union Ħaddiema Magħqudin had directed employees to ignore the MTA’s directive and filed an industrial dispute.

The MTA said 18 of its 125 employees used to work from home. After a review one of the employees had her teleworking arrangements terminated since it was no longer justified, the MTA said. “The remaining 17 continued to benefit from telework and improvements in the system… [were] implemented to ensure that all possible abuses would be curbed,” the statement said.

Another four employees who were going to apply for telework did not do so since they disagreed with the new framework.

The Tourism Ministry had insisted last week there was no reduction in the teleworking programme. It said the MTA was making sure that those eligible for teleworking would benefit from the programme, but abuses had to end.

In yesterday’s statement the MTA said family-friendly measures, according to the Public Service Management Code, were at the discretion of management and linked to the exigencies of work.

The agency insisted these measures were never denied to any of its employees.