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Officers turned waiters: ‘Police Commissioner should defend their dignity’
Alternattiva Demokratika questions the way ‘police officers are being ordered about by government ministers’.
30 June 2013, 12:00am
Staff Reporter
Staff Reporter
2 min read
Alternattiva Demokratika has put to question the decision to have police officers serving as waiters at an official banquet hosted by Home Affairs Minister Manuel Mallia for European Broadcasting Union delegates.
Between 25 and 30 officers were ordered to leave their stations and report for work at the official banquet at the Prime Minister's official country residence in Girgenti - although the Police Commissioner has insisted that a call was issued for the interested officers who wanted to work the banquet.
AD chairperson Arnold Cassola has however questioned whether this type of activity fell within the job description of a police officer.
"Would it not be better for the policemen to be on the beat, at the service of the citizen? Has the upcoming police trade union been consulted on this? Are the GWU and other unions representing the hotel industry workers happy at the way their members are deprived of work, that has been carried out by cheap labour police officers who have to obey orders?" Cassola said.
Carmel Cacopardo, AD spokesman on home affairs, accused Police Commissioner Peter Paul Zammit of merely being a "figurehead" and allowing police officers to be ordered around by government ministers was "demeaning".
"It is the Commissioner's duty to defend the dignity of the Police Force and it is clear that he has failed at the first opportunity.
Reacting to the media reports on the case, the Police Force insisted that the policemen involved "gave their services on a voluntary (and extra-pay) basis after a call was sent out (as is the procedure) and a number of individuals opted not to participate."
"The so called 'order' is an internal mechanism whereby notice of temporary change of shift or duties is notified back to the respective stations. And it has nothing to do with the natural terms of the word 'order' implying doing something which is contrary to one's wishes. Equally no policeman was 'ordered' to leave their station," the Police said.
It went on to add that in its 199 years of service the Police Force had "served food to its members, to the highest dignitaries visiting Malta, and in time of need to the whole Maltese populace".
"The Police Force is made up of people from all walks of life with a very wide capacity base. It is good management to absorb and refine these particular capacities adapting them to the needs of the Police Force and there is nothing at all degrading either in itself or inherently in work ethics associated in the serving as a waiter."
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Talk is cheap and if this is all AD can come up with, well lets just say that they are not moving towards to green track. AD should have conducted a survey before saying anything, checking how many Police officers have a part time job and if this part time job is working as a waiter/chef in some restaurant/wedding venues etc on this island? I am sure they would have been surprised with the result.
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Before AD speaks out it should first know the facts and not pick what is suitable to take to task the PL. In fact on the Sunday Times there is a statement by Dr. K. Mifsud Bonnici boasting that he never had police as waiters under his watch. Very true but under his watch he had a prison that was more like hotel with an in house drug retail operation that offered cell delivery.
For the information of those scandalised the Sunday Times published a statement by the Police Association. This made it very clear that Minister Mallia asked for VOLUNTEERS from the Police Corp to act as waiters against remuneration. This was done through a circular and in no time was anybody ordered or coerced to do anything against his or her. I was of the impression that AD who likes to flaunt its progressive credentials would not consider working as a waiter as a demeaning job. I was very much mistaken AD is as snobbish as can be
But what galls me is this hypocrisy and bigotry washed with crocodile tears for the workers, the police in this case. I was very surprised that AD and even Malta Today for that matter did not utter one single work about the right that the police have earned to join a trade union. A right recognised, pledged and now given by the Labour administration. Was this information news worthy? No, as it was not deleterious to the government.
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EVERY JOB HAS ITS DIGNITY, and it's people that look down on certain jobs that don't have any dignity!
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"The Police Force is made up of people from all walks of life with a very wide capacity base. It is good management to absorb and refine these particular capacities adapting them to the needs of the Police Force and there is nothing at all degrading either in itself or inherently in work ethics associated in the serving as a waiter."
Exactly so, so please stop this farcical criticism, by one and all of everything that has in any way to do with a new government appointee.
After a 100 days this government has already done so much to prove that this is the change we voted for, of course there is still a long way to go and definitely some 'mishaps' will happen along the way which will need to be rectified. But this is a government that even here has already proven to have a good track record, so stop picking on this trivial matters in your criticism please, it just proves that there is nothing more serious to pick upon
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Mr.Cacopardo,there is nothing wrong or degrading by serving as waiter,or door man.If you don't know CIA and MI5 used them in offical banquets.
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The "whole Maltese populace"?!! English translation of "il-marmalja Maltija". It's getting better and better. Or as Alice in Wonderland would say: "betterer and betterer"! But then the Police Commissioner is an LP.
