Claimed membership by ship trade union

Port workers are being questioned in confidence on whether they are a member of a trade union and if yes, which trade union, the Ministry of Social Policy said today.

The process is being held by the Director of Employment and Industrial Relations to verify which trade union enjoys the biggest membership among the port workers.

The ministry said this process was established practice whenever more than one trade union demanded recognition.

It was reacting to statements by the GWU which criticised the director for the way the verification is being carried out. The union last week commissioned a ballot which, it said, found that the majority of port workers want it to represent them.

The Malta Dockers' Union is insisting it is the port workers' representative.

“The only certain manner to ascertain whether an employee is a member of a trade union or not is by direct interview. This system has been in place for every verification carried out last year. Indeed 18 such verifications were performed last year involving various unions including the GWU. Indeed in a particular exercise held last year, three unions were involved with two of them being the General Workers Union and the Malta Dockers’ Union,” the ministry said.

GWU REACTION

The GWU in a reaction to the government's statement said the legitimacy of such any exercise was wholly dependent on the methodology used by the director, and an undemocratic exercise could form no basis for recognition.

"The exercise proposed and currently being executed by Dr. Noel Vella (the Director of Employment and Industrial Relations) is flawed in that:

"The 'verification exercise' is not itself verifiable by anyone. Neither the two unions nor the employers have been given access to the records of the so-called verification and no party has been allowed to monitor the proceedings.

"Such exercise is potentially inconclusive and could coerce the parties to escalate the dispute.

"The exercise is spread over three days with the clear possibility for a union to put pressure on those workers who did not indicate their preference early in the verification process. It is inconceivable for a verification of less than 400 preferences to take more than a single day," the GWU said.

It said its own secret ballot was completed within a day by an independent law firm led by Professor Ian Refalo. Dr Vella had so far failed to explain why his own "verification" was to take so long.

The GWU said the allegation that the verification exercise is "the only certain manner to ascertain whether an employee is a member of trade union or not is by direct interview" is baseless.

"The method is far from certain in that a worker may opt or may be coerced to declare membership in a union when that is untrue. What the exercise would be recording is the worker's declaration at that point in time, which is equivalent to a vote. The only safe way to establish a free vote is through a secret ballot and not an open declaration which exposes workers to recriminations," the GWU said, adding that the director had repeatedly refused to organise or oversee a secret ballot of port workers' preferences.

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