A hotel head receptionist, who openly criticised a board decision to rent lobby space to a tour company, has been granted €35,000 compensation after an industrial tribunal ruled she had been sacked illegally.

The receptionist was dismissed in January last year after the ­Paradise Bay Hotel management accused her of abandoning her job to interfere in company matters.

The fact that she was married to a director did not have any weight and was not relevant to the case

The management referred specifically to an incident that occurred in 2012 when Ramona Zammit, who had worked at the hotel for more than 30 years, publicly criticised a board decision to rent out a desk in the lobby to a local company wishing to promote its tours.

Managers told the industrial tribunal that Ms Zammit, who was married to one of the hotel’s directors, had caused a rift among the management as a result of which the board had not met for more than a year.

Ms Zammit refuted the claims, arguing that the hotel wanted to find an excuse to get rid of her on the basis of a 2009 board decision that spouses of managers and shareholders would not be allowed to work at the hotel.

Because she had been employed by the hotel for several years, Ms Zammit was the only staff member to remain following the policy decision and this, she submitted, had caused friction among the directors.

The industrial tribunal refused to go into the merits of the board decision, saying its role was only to determine whether the decision to sack Ms Zammit had been justified.

Tribunal chairman Franco Masini said the hotel management had failed to prove that Ms Zammit had been the cause of friction between members of the board of directors.

The tribunal also noted that the hotel was right in complaining about the way Ms Zammit had publicly, and in the presence of other employees, challenged a director over the decision to rent lobby space to a company.

It said this was “unethical” but in no way could be interpreted as a confrontation serious enough to merit dismissal.

Therefore, it concluded, there were no sufficient grounds to justify her dismissal. The fact that she was married to a director did not have any weight and was not relevant to the case, it said.

The tribunal did not insist on Ms Zammit’s reinstatement but ordered the hotel to pay her compensation.

Lawyer Andrew Grima appeared for Ms Zammit, who had her case filed by the Union Ħaddiema Magħqudin.

Lawyer Charlotte Camilleri represented the hotel.