Industrial Tribunal members protest union’s move to sue them personally

The members of Malta’s Industrial Tribunal have protested a court summons against them personally, in a constitutional case filed by the Union of Professional Educators.

Chairperson Harold Walls and the tribunal’s two members told Prime Minister Robert Abela in a letter, that they were umbraged at being personally held liable in the UPE’s court claim filed by legal counsels Jason Azzopardi and Therese Comodini Cachia.

“We understand it is the plaintiff’s right to file a constitutional case on any such alleged rights breach, but we are concerned at being personally held liable. But the Industrial Tribunal’s members’ independence and impartiality is safeguarded at law… at no point was our recusal ever requested.”

Walls told Abela that it was “unacceptable” that once a plaintiff does not agree with the decision of the tribunal, its members have to face a constitutional challenge.

The tribunal is not composed of judges or magistrates, but the appointed members said they carry out quasi-judicial roles. “It is for this reason that the tribunal’s individual members cannot be individually sued, for them to be safeguarded when discharging their duties,” Walls said.

Walls said no judge or magistrate had ever been sued personally over any court sentence. “The same should stand for members of this Tribunal,” citing case-law that protects such appointed members to tribunals, courts, or decision-making boards.

In the original case, filed by the UPE against the Directorate for Educational Services, the union’s legal representatives objected to the first two members of the tribunal, they did not object to the presence of Lawrence Mizzi and Bryony Balzia Bartolo as tribunal members on the complaint, nor requested their recusal. “We are therefore surprised at this ‘attack’, given that it is aimed at us personally.”

The constitutional case, to be heard in January 2024, was filed by the UPE against the State Advocate, the DES, the director of industrial and employment relations, as well as Harold Walls, Lawrence Mizzi and Bryony Balzia Bartolo.

Parliamentary secretary for social dialogue Andy Ellul held a press conference Saturday afternoon, calling the constitutional action on the three members an “unjust and disproportionate attack”, and that the government would support the Tribunal members by financing their legal expenses.

“The Tribunal’s chairperson has been reappointed under preceding administrations for 2pm years in his role, and no recusal has ever been requested of him; while the other members have been appointed together with the constituted bodies of the MCESD.”