How the Times of Malta reported the Josephine Attard Sultana sacking in 2006.A former General Workers’ Union’s section secretary who was sacked from her job in 2006 has failed to prove her claim of illegal dismissal before an industrial tribunal.
Josephine Attard Sultana was relieved of her duties by the union’s national council following the approval of a motion moved by the central administration.
The motion and subsequent dismissal came just days after Ms Attard Sultana had successfully filed court action to stop the holding of an extraordinary general meeting of the public service workers’ section.
Ms Attard Sultana filed the case before the industrial tribunal claiming she had been sacked illegally.
The union, on its part, argued that Ms Attard Sultana’s behaviour went against the union’s well-being and interests.
It was clearly insubordination
It said that what she had done was clearly “insubordination”.
Ms Attard Sultana, who had been active within the GWU since 1982, had gone full-throttle against the union administration when she went to court to get a judge to stop an extraordinary general meeting of her section.
The meeting, which would have decided on whether she would keep her job or not, was called by the GWU administration following a petition.
But the Industrial Tribunal, presided over by Martin Fenech, did not go into the merits of the sacking case.
It said that Ms Attard Sultana was a government employee who had left her post on special unpaid leave to join the union as section secretary.
In fact, it said, Ms Attard Sultana went back to the government post when she had her post terminated. This meant that there was no termination of employment and Ms Attard Sultana never lost her job but simply her position as section secretary, to which she had been elected anyway.
On the basis of this evidence, the tribunal ruled that Ms Attard Sultana had failed to prove her illegal sacking claims she was making and had failed to prove that she had been the victim of unfair dismissal.
The case had been filed against former GWU general secretary Tony Zarb.