Registration of a Trade Union or Employers’ Association

The Statute – Eligibility and Legal Framework

EIRA regulates what the statute of a trade union or employers’ association shall contain. The statute shall contain, as is reasonably expected, information such as name, address of the principal office and the objects for which it is established. Other information to be included relates to the purposes for which, and the manners in which, any property or funds of the union or association are authorised to be applied or invested, the offences for which the union or association may  take disciplinary action, the penalties applicable, the procedure for the hearing of cases, rules regulating the election and re-election of a governing body, the manner in which the governing body, officers and other officials can be removed from office, the keeping of full and accurate accounts, the appointment of auditors, the annual auditing of the accounts, regulation related to amending the statute and to the dissolution of the union or association.

Steps to Register a Trade Union in Malta

Any seven or more members of a trade union or of an employers’ association who subscribe  their names to the statute of the union or association, may register the union or association under EIRA.

An application to register the union or association and its Statute shall be forwarded or produced to the Registrar of Trade Unions. The application shall be supplemented with two printed copies of the Statute and with a list of the names of the officials of the union or association and their respective offices. Every application for the registration of a trade union or an employers’ association shall be in the form of Form No. 1 which can be found in the Schedule to S.L.452.16.

Upon registering a trade union or an employers’ association, the Registrar of Trade Unions shall issue a certificate of registration (Form No. 2 of S.L.452.16).

Any amendment to the rules of a registered trade union or employers’ association shall be registered with the Registrar of Trade Unions in terms of both the EIRA and S.L.452.16, and any such alteration shall not take effect except from the date of its registration or from such later date as may be specified in the rules. In any case, the statute shall not be so altered as to be non-compliant with EIRA.

Registrar’s powers

The Registrar of Trade Unions is empowered to refuse or cancel a registration on the grounds set by law and by following the procedure laid down in the same. This decision is not to be taken lightly so much so that there is the possibility of an appeal from such decisions before the courts of law.

Besides the above, the Registrar must keep a register of all trade unions and employers’ associations registered under the EIRA. The law requires that such register be open to inspection by any person free of charge at all reasonable times.

The secretary of  every  registered  trade  union  and employers’ association shall give the Registrar all reasonable facilities for the inspection for the purpose of the records showing the name, address and the trade or occupation of each member of the trade union or main  activity of each member of the employers’ association and the date up to which subscriptions have been paid by each member.

On or after the second day of June and before the first day of July of every year, the Registrar requires, by means of a notice in the Government Gazette, all registered trade unions and employers’ associations to transmit to him within fifteen (15) days –

• a list of the names of the officers of the union or association (and their offices);
• a declaration that the names of members are up to date;
• a statement of the receipts, funds and expenditure of the union or association in respect of the preceding year.

Further to the above, every trade union and every employers’ association shall, not later than one month from the auditing of its accounts, transmit a copy of such accounts to the Registrar of Trade Unions.

In the month of August of each year, the Registrar is required to send to the Minister responsible for industrial relations a report related to his legal obligations in terms of law. This report is published in the Government Gazette.

Non-compliance

Failure by a registered trade union or employers’ association to keep a register of members, to submit to the Registrar of Trade Unions annual returns, or failure to forward the Registrar its accounting records, constitute criminal offences. Indeed, the trade union or association, in default, shall be liable on conviction to a fine (multa) not exceeding one thousand and one hundred and sixty-four euro and sixty-nine cents (1,164.69) in case of a breach of any of these duties.