The Industrial and Employment Relations Act prohibits an employer from subjecting his employees to discriminatory treatment in regard to conditions of employment or dismissal.
However, the government is failing badly in its responsibility to uphold this principle of equal treatment by favouring certain of its employees who are being investigated or arraigned in connection with a criminal offence.
Quite upsetting and demoralising has been the inconsistent and discriminatory manner in which John Borg, the permanent secretary for the ministry of Gozo, applied the disciplinary regulations to favour three high ranking Gozo ministry officers.
Last month, these officers appeared in court without any public announcement and charged both in their personal capacity and public role with involuntary homicide and several breaches of the Occupational Health and Safety Authority Act, including lack of risk assessment prior to assigning work to the victim and failure to provide him with the necessary safety equipment.
Yet, Borg brazenly recommended to the Public Service Commission not to suspend these officers from their work under the lame alibi that the homicide was of an involuntary nature and (sic) their exemplary record.
Prime Minister Robert Abela, who is vested with the power of deciding whether a public officer should be suspended, has gone against the norm and publicly backed the Gozo ministry’s scandalous initiative to keep the officers concerned in office while the criminal proceedings against them are in process.
Abela even tried to take the public for a ride saying the involuntary nature of the crime makes a fundamental distinction, while conveniently omitting that such crime is punishable by a four-year imprisonment and a fine.
Abela’s deceitfulness becomes even more evident when considering that he has approved a myriad of recommendations made to him by the PSC to suspend other public officers on half pay for much less serious charges, with resultant considerable sufferings to their families.
These officers have remained suspended for long months, if not years, and were precluded from returning to their employment before the conclusion of the disciplinary or criminal proceedings against them.
Abela and his associates exploit loopholes in the disciplinary regulations to the advantage of those close to them so that they can circumvent justice.
Another obscene discrimination in the enforcement of discipline was recently committed by Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri, who set a dangerous precedent by his failure to suspend prison director Robert Brincau, who was taken to court after allegedly pointing a gun, which he had taken from prison, at an ambulance driver’s head in public.
One of the barrage of puerile excuses that were given to retain Brincau in employment was that the PSC disciplinary regulations providing for the suspension of public officers do not apply to Brincau as a public employee. As if to say conduct that brings the government service into disrepute only merits disciplinary action if committed by a public officer.
The Labour government has lost the basic notions of fairness and justice where employee discipline is concerned- Denis Tanti
Yet, even if Brincau had happened to be a public officer, in all probability he would still have been treated with a velvet glove like the three privileged Gozo ministry officers.
The Labour government has lost the basic notions of fairness and justice where employee discipline is concerned, which, in turn, has lowered the morale of the workforce and raised the concern of the trade unions representing them.
The Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses has publicly expressed its concern about such lack of a fair and consistent administration of discipline.
To mind comes the tragic incident that shocked the country last summer when the decomposed body of an 83-year-old dementia-ridden resident of St Vincent de Paul long-term residence was discovered in piteous circumstances underneath a tree in a field in Birżebbuġa, 16 days after he was caught on CCTV footage walking out of the same residence at 2.47am.
The nursing staff on duty at the resident’s ward and the security staff on duty at the main gate at the time he went missing were not spared suspension. Unlike the privileged Gozo ministry officers, Abela had no hesitation in authorising their suspension on half pay.
At the same time, one cannot help but notice that the CEO of SVP, Josianne Cutajar had waited five whole weeks from the date when the resident went missing before suspending the staff in question.
This notwithstanding an internal inquiry into the case that commenced the day after the incident, tasked with identifying shortcomings leading to the incident that would warrant disciplinary or criminal proceedings.
Such a delay in suspension defies its own scope of preventing the officers concerned from having access to their work premises, with the risk of removing or destroying official evidence that may be used against them.
Following this unfortunate incident, the ministry for the elderly was prompt to step up security at the residence to the extent of making it look more like a prison than a residence for the elderly.
The number of security officers guarding entrances and exits of the residence has since tripled, which constitutes evidence that the safety of the residents had not been given the required importance.
The reaction of MUMN president Paul Pace was to challenge the SVP administration over the allocation of the missing resident to an open ward when it was aware that he suffered from dementia. Plain common sense dictates that the resident should have been placed in a dementia-friendly ward under lock and key for his own safety.
This was not the first time a resident at SVP had left the residence unnoticed and wandered outside alone with the risk of ending up in similar tragic circumstances, while no action was taken by the CEO.
The inconsistent and unequal implementation of discipline in the public sector, according to who the employee happens to be rather than the nature and gravity of the accusation, is condemnable and in clear breach of the Industrial and Employment Relations Act.
Denis Tanti is a former assistant director at the health ministry.