Injustices tribunal awards professor Lm4,500 compensation

The Tribunal for the Investigation of Injustices yesterday recommended that Prof. Joseph Leslie Pace be awarded Lm4,500 in compensation for the injustice sustained when he had not been reinstated as Head of the Department of Anatomy within the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Malta.

Prof. Pace filed his application against university rector Prof. Roger Ellul Micallef.

Mr Justice Lino Farrugia Sacco, presiding the tribunal, noted that Prof. Pace had been appointed Head of the Anatomy Department, the appointment valid until he retired.

However, following the dispute between the doctors' union, MAM, and the government, he had lost his employment with the government and his university post.

Subsequently, MAM and the government reached an agreement whereby all those doctors who had lost their employment as a result of the dispute were entitled to full reinstatement.

Prof. Pace had applied for reinstatement both as professor of anatomy and as Head of the Anatomy Department and his application was filed prior to September 5, 1988, which was the date when the Education Act came into effect.

However, the university submitted that it had not discriminated against Prof. Pace and that in terms of the Education Act, applicant could not be reinstated to the post of Head of Department, as this was a selective appointment.

In its decision, the tribunal noted that other former colleagues of Prof. Pace within the Faculty of Medicine had been automatically reinstated as heads of department.

Mr Justice Farrugia Sacco declared that Prof. Pace had been treated unjustly, for Prof. Frederick Fenech and Prof. William Bannister had been reinstated as heads of department.

Although Prof. Pace had applied for reinstatement prior to the coming into force of the Education Act, procedures had been slow, and the Education Act had then come into effect.

The tribunal therefore concluded that Prof. Pace had suffered an injustice and recommended that he be awarded Lm4,500 in compensation.

The tribunal, however, found that it could not order his reinstatement as the university rector could not violate the provisions of the Education Act.