Psychology academic and Labour MP Katya De Giovanni has filed a judicial protest calling on the University of Malta to reverse its decision to deny her promotion to associate professor.

She described the decision as “arbitrary and unjust,” threatening further legal action against the University unless the decision, taken “illegally,”  was revoked and her promotion was granted with immediate effect.

The protest followed a two-and a half year process which kicked off in March 2021 when DeGiovanni, a senior lecturer. applied for promotion to ‘associate professor.’ At the time she was chair of the Psychology Warranting Board and chairperson of the Social Care Standards Authority

In October 2023, De Giovanni was informed that the Promotions Board had not recommended her promotion.

Aggrieved by that decision which she deemed “arbitrary and unjust,” the academic requested the board to reconsider her application as she had a right to in terms of the collective agreement concerning academic staff at University.

The board replied on January 26, telling her in a letter that: “Following a detailed analysis of your request and claims, the Promotions Board agreed that it could still not recommend to Council your promotion to Associate Professor as there were no grounds justifying a change from the original decision.” 

In her judicial protest, De Giovanni questioned that “detailed analysis,” pointing out that no reasons were given for the refusal and this went against the administrative law principle regarding ‘the duty to give reasons.’ She had not even been summoned before the board and this also breached another sacrosanct principle, namely that of ‘audi alteram partem’ (hearing the other side).

The two-and-a-half-year duration of her application process was also “unreasonable and unacceptable,” argued De Giovanni’s lawyer, Edward Zammit Lewis.

It was pointed out that other candidates, including those whose qualifications and experience were inferior to De Giovanni’s, had been promoted and their application were processed far more speedily.

The board did not mention six important publications by the applicant and her extensive curriculum vitae was not taken into consideration, the judicial protest says. De Giovanni is also a visiting professor at Padova University and a fellow at the British Psychology Society.

De Giovanni said that unless the University revoked its decision, she would pursue further legal remedies including an action for judicial review as well as constitutional proceedings, if necessary.

And if that were to happen, she would be constrained to mention names and produce concrete evidence to support such “damning discrimination” in her regard.

The whole process was unreasonable and abusive, lacking due reasons, vitiated by procedural defects and ran counter to the doctrine of legitimate expectations, she insisted.

Lawyer and Labour MP Edward Zammit Lewis signed the judicial protest.