Maltacom chairman Maurice Zarb Adami told a court yesterday that five employees promoted to work in customer care had been verbally told of their appointment but since the decision was taken at the level of the board of directors, it had immediate effect.

The chairman testified before Mr Justice Raymond Pace in the Civil Court in the application filed by the General Workers` Union against Maltacom.

The union has requested the court to stop the corporation from granting promotions to five of its employees on the grounds that the procedures established in terms of the current collective agreement between the parties was not observed.

The five employees are Kristinu Sant, Mario Mamo, Charles Vassallo, Josephine Agius and Vincent Bonanno.

On its part, Maltacom submitted that no warrant of prohibitory injunction could be issued in this case as the promotions had already been granted.

The corporation submitted that the board of directors had approved these promotions in a meeting held on May 29, and its decision had been communicated to the employees prior to the filing of the warrant of prohibitory injunction by the union.

Zarb Adami said the board had met on May 29 and he had informed the directors that five employees were to be promoted so as to work in a new section of Maltacom, the "Users Liaison Centre" where they would deal with customer complaints.

The five employees were informed of this promotion by word of mouth and no letter of appointment had as yet been issued.

The decisions of the board of directors, said Zarb Adami, took immediate effect.

He added that he had informed Josephine Agius personally about the promotion, but he did not know how the other employees were informed.

The union`s application for the issue of the warrant of prohibitory injunction was received by Maltacom after the board meeting.

The award of promotions was a managerial decision, and Zarb Adami added that the five employees in issue were bound by the collective agreement entered into between the union and Maltacom.

The executive head of Maltacom, Stephen Muscat, also confirmed that the decision to award the promotions had been taken by the board of directors prior to the issue of the warrant of prohibitory injunction.

But to date Maltacom had not yet activated the official procedures in respect of these promotions.

The case continues.

Dr Aron Mifsud Bonnici was counsel to the GWU.

Dr Joe Galea Debono and Dr MarseAnn Farrugia were counsel to Maltacom.