Court staff threaten industrial action over COVID-19 vaccine availability

The Union Deputy Registrars Law Courts have threatened industrial action over the lack of COVID vaccinations being made available to Law Courts staff.

The union, which represents the majority of court employees has given Friday as a deadline for developments in its request for inoculations, which it says it has been chasing for several weeks.

Failure to meet its demands will result in directives, it said in a letter to the Courts’ Director-General Frank Mercieca.

Last month, the union had also written to Superintendent of Public Health Prof. Charmaine Gauci as well as Mercieca, expressing concern at the fact that there was no word on vaccinations for court staff.

The court staff represented by the union workers at the coalface of the justice system, in courtrooms, as well as the courts’ various registries and, are in contact with a large number of people every single day, it said. Industrial action at the law courts would wreak havoc on and potentially paralyse the administration of justice in Malta.

The union noted that employees of less risky sectors, such as Maltapost and ARMS Ltd, had already received their vaccinations.

The letter officially requested that its members, as well as other workers falling under the Agency, including the administration and the judiciary, receive their COVID-19 vaccination “as soon as possible.”