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Former housing minister still fighting for Lm1.75 pay rise

Former housing minister Alfred Portelli, who now works as a clerk at the General Workers’ Union, has once again made a bid for a Lm1.75 per week pay rise.

MaltaToday reported how, last September, the Union Press arm of the GWU, which is responsible for the printing of the union papers,

‘l-Orizzont’ and ‘It-Torca’, had rejected a pay increase application from former Labour minister, Mr Portelli.

The former housing minister is employed at the Union Press as a Group 3 Clerk in the jobbing section. Group 3 is the lowest grade a worker can occupy at the Union Press. Normally employees are promoted to Group 2 after a couple of years of service.

Sources from the GWU told MaltaToday that Mr Portelli has again made a formal application to be promoted to Group 2 as the new collective agreement is being discussed by the Union Press Employees Committee. UPEC has told the workers to make the necessary applications, even on an individual basis. This includes injustice claims, such as the withholding of promotions.

Last time, Mr Portelli’s plea was rejected because there was a freeze on the collective agreement. This time round there is set to be a thawing, with some wage increases due to be awarded. But things are unlikely to be straightforward, since it is understood that UPEC wants a Lm4 a week pay rise, while GWU officials are only prepared to offer Lm1.50 a week.

Mr Portelli was employed as a clerk with the GWU before the Malta Labour Party won the elections in 1996 which saw him appointed Minister for Housing by Dr Alfred Sant.

Less than two years later, the Labour Party lost the snap elections and Mr Portelli lost his seat.

The former minister ended up without a job and although he tried several times to get reinstated at the GWU, it was said that some top officials did not want him re-employed. One of the reasons cited was that Mr Portelli did not give the go-ahead for the allocation of a house to the close relative of a top GWU official.

But after five months of waiting Mr Portelli was given a post in the jobbing division of the Union Press. His conditions of employment there are the lowest possible given to new employees who join the enterprise. His salary stands at about Lm4,700 a year, on a par with the maids, storekeepers and junior printers. And, despite all the belt-tightening at the GWU, some workers who were promoted recently got a hefty wage rise.

Mr Portelli is expected to contest the next general elections for the Labour party.