A man who claims to have been suspended from work for trying to prevent a fire at his workplace, yesterday complained that disciplinary proceedings against him had stalled, breaching his right to a fair hearing.

Anthony Gauci, who works at the Malta Maritime Authority, yesterday filed a judicial protest against his employer after the disciplinary sittings were put off twice.

He explained that he had been working for the authority for the past 20 years as a berthing assistant, which included patrolling the Ta' Xbiex quay, tracking boats and seeing that any boats entering Malta obey security, quarantine and VAT laws.

Mr Gauci said that on February 23, while at work, he had seen two MMA workers carrying out welding work on pontoon B. He claimed that the workers had only two domestic fire extinguishers, saying this was dangerous because if a fire was to break out on the pontoon these extinguishers would not be adequate.

Mr Gauci said that he took the necessary action against what he had seen and took up his complaints with "the competent authorities". He said he was subsequently suspended from his job in a letter he had received from the berthing master Chris Schembri.

Mr Gauci said he has remained suspended until today because disciplinary proceedings initiated against him had stalled since an MMA official had ceased to work there.

He added that he was then told that the proceedings would have to start from the beginning and was scheduled to start on July 22, but this never happened.

He complained that this was in breach of his right to a fair hearing and therefore gave the Maritime Authority 15 days to remedy the situation.

Lawyer Anġlu Farrugia signed the protest.