The General Workers’ Union yesterday accused the director at the industrial relations and employment department of acting inappropriately when asking Malta Freeport workers which union they belonged to.

In a judicial protest, the union said the majority of the engineering section at Freeport were its members and they asked the manager to grant the GWU official recognition to negotiate a collective agreement on their behalf.

The manager referred the matter to Noel Vella, the director at the industrial relations and employment department, who set in motion a verification process to check that the majority of the workers were indeed members of the union, the GWU said in the protest.

It argued that Dr Vella was not empowered to do so and, although it objected to such a process, he still went ahead.

Lawyer Aaron Mifsud Bonnici signed the protest.