A member of the commission investigating the petition to remove Josephine Attard Sultana from the General Workers Union (GWU) said that after nine people withdrew their signatures, the petition was no longer valid.

Saviour Frendo was testifying before Industrial Tribunal chairman Joseph Bonnici in a case Ms Attard Sultana initiated against the GWU. She is asking the tribunal to declare that her dismissal from the union last year was abusive, illegal and without any legal basis.

She is also asking the tribunal to declare GWU general secretary Tony Zarb, his deputy Gejtu Mercieca and other union officials responsible for the damages she suffered as a result of her dismissal.

Mr Frendo said that on 11 May 2006, the members of the executive of the Public Workers Section had a meeting with the union's central administration and complained about the huge number of emails Ms Attard Sultana was receiving from Louis Marsh and Mr Mercieca.

"We had a meeting with administration and told them that they were not being fair with the huge number of emails. Mr Mercieca told us not to interfere and that it was none of our business," he said.

"Someone asked him who do you think you are? God? And he replied 'yes I am God," said Mr Frendo.

"At that point, Mr Mercieca became very angry and started insulting us. Andrew Howard got up and told GWU secretary general Tony Zarb that they are defending their secretary as it is only fair. Mr Howard got up and Mr Mercieca punched him," said Mr Frendo.

Frans Buttigieg, who was president of Public Workers Section at the time, explained that on the 4 July 2006 he received a phone call from Ms Attard Sultana who told him that a petition, dated 22 June 2006, against her was going around.

"I saw the petition the next day and saw immediately that there were certain points that were not true. I agreed that we had to call a meeting of the section's executive," said Mr Buttigieg.

He went on to say that the meeting was called on 17 July and, in the meantime, they started verifying the contents of the petition that made claims that the number of registered members with the GWU were decreasing.

However, said Mr Buttigieg, this was not true.

During the meeting, the members of the executive unanimously decided to set up a working group to investigate the petition, said Mr Buttigieg.

"I had suggested that David Mallia forms part of this working group - which we referred to as the commission - but Ms Attard Sultana objected and he didn't accept," he said.

Mr Buttigieg said that he spoke to GWU secretary general Tony Zarb who told him to keep on working on it.

"He then sent for me again and I gave him a document that listed the members of the commission. The document also stated that fieldwork was going to be carried out that in turn would be given to the section," he said.

The working group had not yet completed its research on the petition - we gave it to him about four/five days before.

They had to verify the authenticity of the signatures and its content and if there were 40 per cent of the members as stated by the law.

Mr Buttigieg said that the petition's format might go against the Data Protection Act because the person who signed last could have seen who signed before and he said that there were a few people who complained.

He went on to say that who signed the petition could get into trouble because the petition stated that Ms Attard Sultana was doing her best to cause the GWU trouble and, as a result, could be defamatory.

The commission then drew up a questionnaire that was put forward before whoever signed the petition against Ms Attard Sultana.

"The person had the choice to answer the questionnaire and sign it with his ID number," explained Mr Buttigieg.

However, he said "after two sessions Mr Zarb called for me and said that we quoting the country's laws and told us to stop what we were doing."

Mr Buttigieg said that he asked Mr Zarb for a reason and he told me "those are our orders."

"He told us 'we are getting hurt and I will hurt you.' All I know is at that time…" said Mr Buttigieg before he broke down and asked to sit down.

"When Mr Zarb told me that - if the vice president was not there I don't know what would have happened. I asked Mr Zarb for his orders in writing," he said.

Mr Frendo, vice-president of the section and member of the commission said that after nine people withdrew their signatures, the petition against Ms Attard Sultana fell through and was no longer legally valid.

"We informed the administration that there was no reason to hold the meeting because the petition was no longer valid.

However, he said that on 7 August the administration issued notice on the front page of l-orizzont that an information meeting was going to held for the union delegates.

"We made it very clear that we did not agree and that we will be attend the meeting to protect our interests - we were not going to participate," said Mr Frendo.

Dr George Abela and Dr Lydia Zerafa represented Ms Attard Sultana while Dr Aaron Mifsud Bonnici and Dr Philip Galea Farrugia represented the union.