So,
the state ignores categorical proof that a consumer of electricity has been overcharged by €152.92 on their electricity bill, in contravention of the Electricity Supply Regulations which stipulate that the quotas of units at the cheaper rates are annual quotas, not two monthly quotas;
the state overcharges us when we were tenants by €3309.84 over 35 months and ignores my request to re calculate the cost of our consumption on the tariff meant for primary residences, not secondary residences. With the result that I have to attend court once a month for 2 years to see who was responsible for the overcharge - my landlord or I. For the first few months of this action, we endure a precautionary garnishee order on our bank account and my salary;
the state does a Pontius Pilate and blames the Secretariat for Catholic Education for underpaying me by circa €20 000, in breach of EU law. When it is the state which is responsible for the approval of church school teachers, when it is the state which decreed that I was to start at the bottom of the Teacher Salary Scale and when it is the state that pays the salary of church school teachers;
the Secretariat for Catholic Education quotes the 2013 MUT / MEDE agreement as reason for not paying me arrears for the first 3 years. Does it understand that this is based on the 2002 Equal Pay for Equal Work Act, which is of dodgy legality? Also, in my case, it doesn't apply because of
EU Article 7(4) Reg. 492/2011:
• ‘Any clause of a collective or individual agreement or of any other collective regulation concerning eligibility for employment, remuneration and other conditions of work or dismissal shall be null and void in so far as it lays down or authorizes discriminatory conditions in respect of workers who are nationals of the other Member States’
my employer - basically, the Church - disregards how its practice of ignoring prior teaching experience for teachers who moved sector pre 2015 is in breach of the Universal declaration of fundamental human rights and colludes with the state to deprive me of equal pay for equal work.
This is Article 23 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:
(1) Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.
(2) Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.
(3) Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.
(4) Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.
There's more but I think I'll stop here.
Please note that it is not just the money that exercises me no end. It's the casualness by which the state, employers, a monopoly utility billing company steals WITH IMPUNITY from the ordinary person, trying to live their life as best they can. The IMPUNITY with which Maltese constitutional law, EU law, fundamental human rights... are breached.
The casualness is obscene. The entitlement to your money, the callousness by which they conduct their wars of attrition...
Also, please note that this behaviour is universal. It is not aimed at just me. These breaches of law, of all jurisdictions, are systemic, institutionalised.
Which brings me to my complete incomprehension that the people - the ordinary people - stand for this arrogant maladministration. If only people could see the power we have when we act as a collective. If only people would see that we have to step up. How much more circumvention of the maladministration can we take? Is this what we want for Malta's next generation?
the state ignores categorical proof that a consumer of electricity has been overcharged by €152.92 on their electricity bill, in contravention of the Electricity Supply Regulations which stipulate that the quotas of units at the cheaper rates are annual quotas, not two monthly quotas;
the state overcharges us when we were tenants by €3309.84 over 35 months and ignores my request to re calculate the cost of our consumption on the tariff meant for primary residences, not secondary residences. With the result that I have to attend court once a month for 2 years to see who was responsible for the overcharge - my landlord or I. For the first few months of this action, we endure a precautionary garnishee order on our bank account and my salary;
the state does a Pontius Pilate and blames the Secretariat for Catholic Education for underpaying me by circa €20 000, in breach of EU law. When it is the state which is responsible for the approval of church school teachers, when it is the state which decreed that I was to start at the bottom of the Teacher Salary Scale and when it is the state that pays the salary of church school teachers;
the Secretariat for Catholic Education quotes the 2013 MUT / MEDE agreement as reason for not paying me arrears for the first 3 years. Does it understand that this is based on the 2002 Equal Pay for Equal Work Act, which is of dodgy legality? Also, in my case, it doesn't apply because of
EU Article 7(4) Reg. 492/2011:
• ‘Any clause of a collective or individual agreement or of any other collective regulation concerning eligibility for employment, remuneration and other conditions of work or dismissal shall be null and void in so far as it lays down or authorizes discriminatory conditions in respect of workers who are nationals of the other Member States’
my employer - basically, the Church - disregards how its practice of ignoring prior teaching experience for teachers who moved sector pre 2015 is in breach of the Universal declaration of fundamental human rights and colludes with the state to deprive me of equal pay for equal work.
This is Article 23 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:
(1) Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.
(2) Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.
(3) Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.
(4) Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.
There's more but I think I'll stop here.
Please note that it is not just the money that exercises me no end. It's the casualness by which the state, employers, a monopoly utility billing company steals WITH IMPUNITY from the ordinary person, trying to live their life as best they can. The IMPUNITY with which Maltese constitutional law, EU law, fundamental human rights... are breached.
The casualness is obscene. The entitlement to your money, the callousness by which they conduct their wars of attrition...
Also, please note that this behaviour is universal. It is not aimed at just me. These breaches of law, of all jurisdictions, are systemic, institutionalised.
Which brings me to my complete incomprehension that the people - the ordinary people - stand for this arrogant maladministration. If only people could see the power we have when we act as a collective. If only people would see that we have to step up. How much more circumvention of the maladministration can we take? Is this what we want for Malta's next generation?
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