The owner of a pastizzerija in St Julian’s has been ordered to pay three employees €11,500 between them after an industrial tribunal ruled they had been sacked illegally nine years ago.

Moreover, they had not even been given the opportunity to defend themselves from accusations made against them when their job was terminated on March 11, 2006.

The industrial tribunal heard how Antoine Tanti, of Champ’s Pastizzerija, summarily sacked Joseph Azzopardi, who had been his employee since 1991, his daughter Christine and her boyfriend Jean-Pierre.

The three claimed their job had been terminated because of separation proceedings involving Mr Tanti’s brother, Noel, and his estranged wife who was Mr Azzopardi’s sister-in-law.

They told the tribunal that the termination was linked to this family issue but Mr Tanti dismissed the claim, saying the matter involving his brother had no bearing on his decision to fire them.

Mr Azzopardi first joined the company in 1991 and stopped working for about a year or so in 1999 when he had a back problem. Ms Azzopardi and her boyfriend were recruited on May 3, 2004.

Mr Tanti claimed the three were fired for disciplinary reasons because they were lazy, were rude to other employees, and ran the business as if it were their own.

He also claimed that Mr Azzopardi was not good at his job, refused to prepare more pizza when it sold out, used foul language often, was impolite and did not respect him as his boss. In fact, he said, when he had terminated his job, Mr Azzopardi told him he will turn up for work anyway the following day and he had to warn him he would call in the police.

But the tribunal, chaired by Harold Walls, found that none of the allegations Mr Tanti made about his former employees had been substantiated with evidence. Neither was there any evidence of previous disciplinary cases.

He therefore found that the reasons given for the termination were insufficient at law. Moreover, he noted that none of the three had been given the opportunity to defend themselves or contest the termination. He ordered Mr Tanti to pay Mr Azzopardi €4,500 and €3,500 each to Ms Azzopardi and Mr Ellul.