Amendment to Police Act welcomed by UHM & GWU

The Union Haddiema Maghqudin and General Workers’ Union have both welcomed the amendment to the Police Act that will give the right to police officers to join a trade union, although not with the right to strike.

“This step will open discussions that will lead to a change in law to give members of the police force the right to trade union membership,” Edwin Balzan, the section secretary of the UHM government workers’ section said.

The GWU said that it had organised a seminar early last year on the right to union membership for workers in the disciplinary forces and it had been attended by both politicians and high officials from the Police Force.

“During the seminar, it was clearly stated that there was consent in Malta for disciplinary force members to be given the right to union membership, even though limitations include not being able to go on strike due to the nature of their work which includes the safety and protection of the law and keeping order in the country,” the GWU said.

Balzan said the UHM had long claimed that the time had come for all UHM members working within the disciplined forces (police force, army, civil protection, and prison wardens) to be given the right to membership to a union.

The UHM and the GWU both deemed the amendment “a step in the right direction” but strongly believed that all workers in the disciplinary forces should have the right to be members of a union of their own choice.

The GWU said that they had also been working for this right to be given to these workers both locally and at a European level since the right to union membership had been existent in a number of EU countries for a long time.

The chairman of the European Police Union (EPU) Hermann Feiner and general secretary of the European Federation of Public Service Employees (EUROFEDOP) Bert Van Caelenberg had recently visited Malta to pressure the government into giving police the right of trade union association following insistence and an invitation made by the UHM,.

On 1 May 2010, a letter had been sent by the UHM to the Prime Minister insisting that those working in the police force had “just as much right as any other worker to be members of an independent union”.

 “By doing so, their work will be given greater recognition and have their rights fully safeguarded so every worker in Malta will have the right of association with a trade union,” Balzan said.