A tug master, fired by SMS from the Malta Freeport Terminal, is contesting the “drastic measure,” claiming it amounts to arbitrary dismissal. 

Ivan Attard resorted to legal action after several emails by his lawyer to his former employer proved futile.

Three months down the line, all calls for the matter to be vetted through the normal procedure before a disciplinary board were ignored, he claims.  

The case dates back to March when Attard, working as a tug master at the Freeport Terminals for years, received a text message from Loris Scardino, enforcement officer at Malta Freeport Terminals Ltd, informing him that he was fired and banning him from the workplace.  

In a judicial protest filed before the First Hall, Civil Court, Attard claims that the only reason for his dismissal could have been the fact that he had changed the truck assigned to him.

But that was something many other truck drivers at the workplace also did, he says.  

He says this should have resulted in a “simple warning,” and officials from the Malta Dockers Union as well as other colleagues at the workplace could vouch for that.  

Yet, in spite of several emails from his lawyer, Scardino would hear none of it and would not even agree to grant the worker a hearing before the disciplinary board. 

Instead, he persisted in the “arbitrary dismissal” that spelt great financial suffering for the man and his family.  

The Commission for Persons with a Disability also stepped in, as Attard suffered from a medical condition. 

Although the commission “seriously”  recommended that the matter be addressed through disciplinary proceedings, the Malta Freeport Terminals Ltd, the Malta Dockers Union and Scardino continued to resist that course of action. 

Three months down the line, Attard says he has still received no reply, thus resorting to legal action against the company, the union and Scardino.

After receiving the text message which had triggered the whole affair, Attard immediately did as told and left the terminal area.  

But even then, Attard says Scardino was not satisfied.

The enforcement officer later turned up at the Birżebbuġa police station to report Attard for allegedly hitting a metal barrier as he drove out of the workplace.

However when police inspected Attard’s vehicle they found no damage compatible with the alleged incident, Attard says.   

Lawyer David Gatt signed the judicial protest.