UHM issues more wideranging directives to law court employees

A number of additional directives issued by UHM – Voice of the Workers to law court workers came into effect yesterday, following failure to reach agreement with the court administration.

The directives are mainly aimed at deputy registrars, since their sectoral agreement has been in discussion for two years and no new agreement has yet been signed.

In addition, calls for applications for clerks and registrars were issued, however only those with diplomas are eligible to apply.

In addition to this, whereas normally such applications are issued under scale 10 of the civil servant pay-scale, it has now been issued under scale 11.

“After two years of discussions, workers are still left without an agreement and are waiting for an understanding to be reached,” UHM Employment Relations and Senior Manager Edwin Balzan told The Malta Independent.

Through the new directives, deputy registrars working in the courts as well as the civil and criminal tribunals: will not enter fines will into the Lecam system and will not process them; will not sign the list of cases for the day; will not post the sitting list on any notice board and will not distribute the list to lawyers present during sittings; will not sign true copies of procedure documents.

In addition, no replacements for deputy registrars absent, neither in the Registry nor in court will occur.

Deputy registrars working in the superior criminal and civil court registry, as well as those in the family court registry, will not issue oaths and will not sign for true copies of documents.

The directive also affects clerical staff, who will not answer phone calls, emails or mobile phones, wont file documents, want scan Gozo court cases, won’t take part in the sale of photo copy cards.

UHM is seeking to address the aforementioned problems through the directives.

After two years of discussions, workers are still left without an agreement.