Legal problems arising from the registration of trade unions.

Abstract

Present-day trade unionism is the result of a gradual evolution of ideas, practice and law. Originally trade union activity was severely restricted but then history witnessed the gradual removal of these fetters mainly through the intervention by Parliament. The first Maltese legislation regulating trade unions is the "Regulation of Trade Unions and Register of Trade Unions Constitution Act, 1927"(l) which 9 as its very title suggests, was an Act to regulate trade unions and to constitute a register of trade unions in Malta. Thus the need was already felt in the earlier part of this century to regulate in some way these combinations and a Registrar of Trade Unions was appointed for this purpose from among His Majesty's bench.( 2 ) Subsequent legislations in this field were the Malta Trade Union Act, 1929(3) which was repealed eight years later by the Trade Union Ordinance, 1937.