UĦM slams GWU 'false allegations' over Transport Malta dispute
GWU had instructed TM driving examiners to reduce daily exam schedule
UĦM on Thursday slammed "false allegations" by GWU over a Transport Malta industrial dispute.
On Wednesday, the General Workers' Union said it had instructed TM driving examiners to reduce their daily exam schedule, after “several attempts” to resolve pending issues through dialogue had failed.
The dispute concerns union representation rights and is not related to financial claims or working conditions, GWU explained.
But on Thursday, the UĦM Voice of the Workers said the matter concerned a very small and specific section - the Driving Examiners - who already form part of an existing collective agreement signed between TM and UĦM.
This agreement governs hundreds of employees across the authority and establishes a single, coherent bargaining framework, it said.
"The issue at hand is not one of union representation, as has been falsely alleged. All employees, without exception, enjoy the individual right to freely choose their union. This right has never been contested by the UĦM.
"However, the present claim is not about individual affiliation. It is, in reality, a request for separate recognition of a subsection that already falls within a recognised bargaining unit. In practical and legal terms, this would amount to fragmenting an established collective bargaining structure into multiple micro-units."
UĦM believes that such an approach would be operationally unworkable and contrary to sound industrial relations practice.
If every small group within a public entity were to demand separate recognition, TM and other public bodies would risk being burdened with dozens of parallel collective agreements, creating inconsistency, administrative inefficiency, and legal uncertainty, it added.
"This outcome would serve neither the employees nor the public interest.
"Should this become the direction of national policy, the UHM will, in the interest of parity and consistency, be compelled to seek equivalent recognition for specific sections across other entities where our members are organised, thereby opening the door to the very fragmentation that current industrial relations frameworks are designed to avoid."