The government either wanted to fight bureaucracy, as Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi had said, or else it wanted to impose laws such as the Data Protection Act, said the GRTU in a statement.

The chamber believed that individuals must be protected so that their personal details are not used without their permission. But it is not acceptable that businessmen should pay an annual licence to store information about their employees and clients.

It was not a question of how much the licence costs. Businessmen stored information about their employees and clients because the law stipulates that they have to, said the chamber.

The GRTU maintained that it does not make sense that the government first obliged businessmen to store this information and then obliged them to pay a licence for doing so. This is bureaucracy at its worst and a form of new taxation.

The chamber also objected to the imposition of fines and eventual prison sentences for those who do not comply with the law.