Malta
The ITUC affiliate in Malta is the General Workers’ Union (GWU).
Malta ratified Convention No. 87 on Freedom of Association
freedom of association
The right to form and join the trade union of one’s choosing as well as the right of unions to operate freely and carry out their activities without undue interference.
See Guide to the ITUC international trade union rights framework
and Protection of the Right to Organise (1948) in 1965 and Convention No. 98 on the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining
collective bargaining
The process of negotiating mutually acceptable terms and conditions of employment as well as regulating industrial relations between one or more workers’ representatives, trade unions, or trade union centres on the one hand and an employer, a group of employers or one or more employers’ organisations on the other.
See collective bargaining agreement
(1949) in 1965.
Legal
Freedom of association / Right to organise
Freedom of association
The right to freedom of association is enshrined in the Constitution.
Anti-Union discrimination
The law prohibits anti-union discrimination, but does not provide adequate means of protection against it.
Barriers to the establishment of organisations
- Prior authorisation or approval by authorities required for the establishment of a union
- Pursuant to section 51 of the Employment and Industrial Relations Act, 2002 (EIRA), a trade union and any member, officer or other official thereof, may not perform any act in furtherance of any of the purposes for which it is formed unless such union has first been registered. The penalty for contravention of this provision is a fine not exceeding 1,165 euros.
- Sanctions imposed for organising organising The process of forming or joining a trade union, or inducing other workers to form or join one. or joining an organisation not officially recognised
- Pursuant to section 51 of the Employment and Industrial Relations Act, 2002 (EIRA), a trade union and any member, officer or other official thereof, may not perform any act in furtherance of any of the purposes for which it is formed unless such union has first been registered. The penalty for contravention of this provision is a fine not exceeding 1,165 euros.
Right to collective bargaining
Right to collective bargaining
The right to collective bargaining is recognised by law.
Restrictions on the principle of free and voluntary bargaining
- Authorities’ power to intervene in the preparation of collective agreements
- Section 6 of the National Holidays and Other Public Holidays Act renders automatically null and void any provisions in existing collective agreements which grant workers the right to recover public holidays falling on a Saturday or Sunday. The ILO Committee of Experts has highlighted the need to amend this provision.
Right to strike
Right to strike
NO INFORMATION AVAILABLE
Undue interference by authorities or employers during the course of a strike
- Authorities’ or employers’ power to prevent or end a strike
strike
The most common form of industrial action, a strike is a concerted stoppage of work by employees for a limited period of time. Can assume a wide variety of forms.
See general strike, intermittent strike, rotating strike, sit-down strike, sympathy strike, wildcat strike by referring the dispute to arbitration arbitration A means of resolving disputes outside the courts through the involvement of a neutral third party, which can either be a single arbitrator or an arbitration board. In non-binding arbitration, the disputing parties are free to reject the third party’s recommendation, whilst in binding arbitration they are bound by its decision. Compulsory arbitration denotes the process where arbitration is not voluntarily entered into by the parties, but is prescribed by law or decided by the authorities.
See conciliation, mediation - Section 74(1) and (3) of the Employment and Industrial Relations Act, 2002 (EIRA) provides that if an amicable settlement of a trade dispute and conciliation has not resulted in a settlement, one of the parties may notify the Minister, who shall refer the dispute to the Industrial Tribunal for settlement. The awards of the Industrial Tribunal are binding (section 82(1)). These provisions would entail a prohibition of all recourse to an industrial action or a restriction to an ongoing industrial action.
In practice
In 2017, the General Workers’ Union (GWU) has attempted to initiate negotiations with Palombo Ship Repair to conclude a collective agreement. The company deliberately delayed the process and secretly circumvented collective bargaining
collective bargaining
The process of negotiating mutually acceptable terms and conditions of employment as well as regulating industrial relations between one or more workers’ representatives, trade unions, or trade union centres on the one hand and an employer, a group of employers or one or more employers’ organisations on the other.
See collective bargaining agreement
by concluding an agreement directly with the workers. GWU was later informed by employees that they had been threatened by the management to sign the document.