Parliament this evening started to debate a “temporary solution” to enable the Industrial Tribunal to keep functioning following a Constitutional Court’s ruling that the tribunal’s current set up was unconstitutional.
A few days ago, an Appeals Court upheld a decision by a judge who last year ruled that the Industrial Tribunal law was unconstitutional as it did not guarantee independence and impartiality.
Social dialogue minister Helena Dalli said the employment law amendments being proposed included a guarantee for the security of tenure of the tribunal members, changes to the practice where the tribunal asked for legal advice without the parties’ knowledge, and to allow for appeals on points of fact.
Moreover the Employment Relations Board would be involved in the appointment of the tribunal’s chairman.
Radical changes should not be carried out in an effort to address an emergency by means of a temporary measure, she said.
The government was, however, willing to consider proposals up to the conclusion of this legislative exercise. Consultation had already been carried out with the Employment Relations Board and some of the proposals made would be included at committee stage.
The previous administration, she said, had failed to carry out the necessary reforms, even though it had reports in this regard.
Dr Dalli took exception to an article by Andrew Borg Cordona, one of the authors of the report, particularly to a comment that the current administration was “a bunch of clowns caught napping”.
She said that employment law amendments had been promised in the administration’s electoral manifesto and work was ongoing. However, the debate on union recognition had dragged on for more than envisaged leading to the suspension of the work that was being carried out on the changes to the employment law.
Opposition spokesman Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici said that the current bill did not address the impartiality and independence requirements of the industrial tribunal as indicated by the Constitutional Court, a view that was also shared by the constituted bodies and experts with whom he discussed the matter.
The Opposition was seeking to contribute towards the best legal amendments, he said, as he referred to an offer he made in this regard last November.
He cautioned against creating a tribunal that was not constitutionally sound, in particular within the current labour scenario that included the situations at De La Rue and Air Malta.
Should the current proposals be enacted, the government would risk a Constitutional challenge, defeating its efforts to find a way out of the current impasse, he warned.