The rights of minority unions

The Union of Professional Educators (UPE) disagrees with Arthur Muscat’s article ‘Understanding industrial relations’ (March 6) as it is factually incorrect.

Muscat seems to cast doubt on the UPE’s position as a minority union. Muscat believes that only unions enjoying majority recognition have the legal right to order industrial action, but this is not so.

The legal basis for industrial action is the prior registration of a trade dispute. The UPE believes that restricting the right to order industrial action to majority unions would limit workers’ freedom of association and would be in blatant breach of their constitutional and conventional rights. 

Our law sets a minimum membership threshold for the formation and registration of a trade union. The relatively low threshold is purposely intended to facilitate workers’ access to trade union protection.

A newly registered small union, for instance, can still protect the interests of its members.  It can legitimately issue directives on issues other than collective bargaining.

Muscat seems to suggest that collective bargaining is the most crucial aspect of trade unionistic activity. We disagree. Primarily, a trade union’s role is to safeguard the dignity of workers against exploitation and various forms of abuse.

The legal basis for industrial action is the prior registration of a trade dispute. Photo: Shutterstock.com

Unions should also guide and defend employees’ legitimate interests, support sustainable improvements at the workplace, point out health and safety issues and ensure adherence to established standards. Collective bargaining is an important function of a trade union enjoying recognition but it is not the most fundamental.

The UPE is concerned about the implied suggestion that minority unions cannot register a trade dispute and direct their members, especially in emergencies. The UPE affirms that it follows the law and is very careful and considerate in its actions and it will not allow any employer, let alone a state-funded entity, to run roughshod over its members.

No trade union should be asked by the employer to identify its members in flagrant breach of the GDPR. Moreover, no worker should be sacked solely for following peaceful union directives. 

There are many serious issues that should concern industrial relations specialists, such as the lack of adherence to health and safety regulations at the workplace and the resurgence of workplace bullying and discrimination cases. Accountability at high level positions in the public sector should also be on their agenda.

It beggars belief, how, for instance, an individual is allowed to hold contemporaneously two CEO roles of government-funded entities raking in two mega salaries and two sets of fringe benefits.

Meanwhile, two impeccable lecturers were dismissed from work simply for allegedly following union directives. Silencing minority unions is not a solution but a prelude to more egregious and socially unjust behaviour.

Graham Sansone – executive head, Union of Professional Educators, Birkirkara