FIAU ordered to pay €20,000 to Jonathan Ferris over unjust dismissal

The Industrial Tribunal has ordered the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit to pay €20,000 in compensation to Jonathan Ferris, ruling that his dismissal during his probation period was unjust.

Ferris, 50, a former police inspector, had filed proceedings against the FIAU before the Industrial Tribunal in 2020 claiming discrimination after it terminated his employment as a Financial Analysis Manager during his probationary period.

He told the tribunal, chaired by lawyer Anna Mallia, that his problems at the FIAU had started in 2017 after Daphne Caruana Galizia published a story alleging that Pilatus Bank had facilitated a $1 million kickback into an account belonging to Michelle Muscat, wife of Joseph Muscat, who was the Prime Minister at the time.

Ferris had spoken to the FIAU Director Alfred Zammit telling him that it did not make sense that the FIAU had given Pilatus Bank the all-clear because in its report the FIAU had found “a bunch of breaches.” Ferris told the tribunal that he had also carried out preliminary checks and analysis in the presence of Zammit and FIAU employee Ruth Gauci which showed that a transaction he was alleged to have leaked was not the same one reported on by Caruana Galizia.  

Gauci was given Ferris’ job after his dismissal.

Ferris filed proceedings before the Industrial Tribunal in 2018 against the then-FIAU Chairman Peter Grech- subsequently replaced by Jesmond Gatt in November 2020- claiming that he had been subjected to discriminatory treatment. The Tribunal had dismissed his claim in May 2022, but Ferris’ appeal to this decision was upheld by Mr. Justice Toni Abela in February this year. The judge ruled that the Tribunal had failed to give sufficient reasons for its decision and sent the case back in order for it to be decided again.

In her decision handed down earlier today, Industrial Tribunal Chairperson Anna Mallia noted that although the FIAU’s computer system logs would have identified the source of the leaks to the media over which Ferris had been dismissed, the FIAU had “brought no evidence, or rather, made no effort” to investigate them.

The Tribunal noted that while it was true that Ferris had access to the reports that were subsequently leaked, but no evidence had been exhibited to show that it was Ferris who had leaked them.

It also confirmed that discriminatory treatment against employees on probation could not be justified.
“Before going any further, it must be clarified that an employer cannot simply do as he pleases because the employee is still in their probationary period,” said Mallia.

“During that period the employer must ensure that the employee on probation is carrying out his duties correctly and must provide all the necessary support and assistance to integrate [the employee] into his workplace, not subject him to discriminatory treatment or victimise him as a strategy aimed at his dismissal, resignation or as an excuse not to keep him on.”