The Department for Industrial and Employment Relations should be offering legal help to workers caught up in civil suits rather than pushing for criminal proceedings which were likely to fail, a magistrates' court has said. 

The important recommendation was made during proceedings against Joseph Meli, a company director who faced charges over unpaid wages and benefits by an employee who had taken his grievance before the DIER.

While the employee claimed he was owed €13,000 in wages, bonuses and allowances, the company's accountant presented documents which set the outstanding balance at €350. 

Mr Meli was acquitted by the court, which found that the company had presented a "clear and detailed account" while the prosecution, which was being helped by the DIER, was unable to present clear evidence to support the worker’s claims.

It was the DIER's job to determine the amounts owed and those already paid, the court observed, since it was the department which formulated the charges which led to prosecution. 

It was not up to the presiding magistrate to carry out the “various calculations and computations” in an attempt to decipher, from data presented by the department, any amounts owed to the employee, the court declared.

Going a step further, the court, presided over by Magistrate Donatella Frendo Dimech, also suggested that once the DIER had a duty to safeguard the interests of workers, it ought to provide legal assistance in civil suits rather than press charges even when it is apparent from the start that the criminal case is likely to fail.

The primary interest of a disgruntled worker was to receive his dues rather than insist upon a criminal conviction against his employer, the court observed.

In this case, the “clear and detailed” evidence presented by the employer’s accountant had not been matched by the prosecution, thereby resulting in an acquittal.