John Bencini resigns

Former Malta Union of Teachers president, John Bencini, has resigned from his post as president of the FORUM grouping of trade unions after participating in a Labour Party candidate’s political activity. Sources said Mr Bencini breached the confederation’s statute by participating in this political activity. This caused uproar among the confederation’s affiliates, who said this was “unacceptable”. The meeting he participated in was held on Tuesday at at ir-Razzett l-Antik in Qormi and was an activity organised by Labour candidate Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca on education. When contacted, FORUM general secretary confirmed that Mr Bencini had resigned but said that this resignation was “not officially” linked to his participation at the political event. He said Mr Bencini had wanted to resign some two or three weeks ago to make space for new blood within the confederation but he had asked him to hold on to the resignation letter and reconsider. He said that at that point, he had not known of commitments of a political nature which Mr Bencini had accepted, in breach of the confederation statute, which bans such participation. Mr Pace insisted that Mr Bencini had not been asked to...