The Right to a Fair Hearing - Even if the Employee Cannot Attend
One of the most interesting cases I have ever read is the Court of Appeal Decision published on the 11th of October 2006 in the names of JV vs Bank of Valletta plc. In this case, the employee was accused of a drug related criminal offence which was punishable with imprisonment. He was found guilty by the Inferior Court and by the Court of Criminal Appeal.
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The Abuse of Fixed Term Contracts in the Public Sector
There seems to be a lot of following in relation to the ongoing debate in Malta vis-a-vis the public sector contracts of definite duration, some of which have been annually renewed for over 20 years. Unfortunately, in Malta the Government saw it fit to control the abuse of successive fixed term contracts in the private sector by means of the 2002 regulations (that determine that unless an employer has objective reasons for doing so, that employer cannot give successive fixed term contracts for more than 4 years at a stretch) but no legislation has been promulgated to curb the abuse in relation to those employees who are employed by none other than the Government itself.
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Management Beware! - No Warnings Allowed
Another judgment of interest was published on the 20th October 2005 by the First Hall of the Civil Court in the names of Stefan Attard vs Fgura Local Council. This judgment concerned the request for compensation of an employee for the remainder since his contract of employment for a fixed term had been terminated.
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Goodbye Penalties in Restraint of Trade
In the past editions of our LAWmail newsletter, we discussed the decisions of
the Civil Courts on restraint of trade and the limitations put in a contract of
employment which attempt to stop a current employee from eventually competing
with his employer or taking away clients from that employer.
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Collective Agreements are Legally Enforceable Documents
In a recent decision by the First Hall, Civil Court presided by Judge
Azzoppardi (Malta Shipyards Ltd vs GWU (10th October 2005)), the court held that
the maxim "pacta sunt servanda" (i.e. contracts are binding and should be
honoured) should also be applied to collective agreements.
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Tribunal Decides on Constructive Dismissal
In a recent decision, the Industrial Tribunal upheld the claim of an employee
for compensation due to unfair dismissal notwithstanding the fact that the
employee had in fact resigned from her employment.
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Drastic Changes in Job Description lead to good and sufficient cause for resignation
The First Hall, Civil Court recently decided that an employee on a fixed term contract had all the right to resign without having to pay the remainder of her wages in accordance with EIRA once she was asked to change her job from receptionist to waitress within the same group of companies, not withstanding that the new job was offered to her as a last resort instead of terminating her employment.
Tribunal Orders Employer to pay Lm 11,300 and Lm 9,200 to two employees for unfair dismissal
In 3 separate but linked decisions, the Industrial Tribunal awarded Lm11,300
and Lm 9,200 to two different employees and ordered reinstatement with regard to
a third employee. The employees had all been employed with their employer since
the 1980's and their employment was terminated for reasons of redundancy in
2002.
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