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Karl Schembri
With the sound of carnival marches blasting in the background, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi yesterday added his dose of warning against the General Workers’ Union, threatening that all Malta Shipyards workers’ jobs would be lost if the company goes bankrupt.
His aides had not foreseen the noise disruption that carnival celebrations bring with them every year in the capital, penetrating the walls of Castille and adding a surreal tone to Gonzi’s message during his first press briefing this year. The din stopped only when he had finished answering the last of the journalists’ questions.
It was while Pajjiz tal-Mickey Mouse was being played that the prime minister said there would be no other alternative to the termination of all yard workers’ employment if the company goes bankrupt in the wake of industrial action ordered by GWU last week.
“The destiny of the shipyards is now in the hands of the workers,” Gonzi said. “There is a minority of workers who are disrupting operations there and compromising the company’s viability. Government did its part in restructuring the yards to make them viable, it is now up to workers to deliver and abide by the agreement. Everyone will be held accountable for his actions.”
Asked whether this was typical government’s bluff whenever it was faced with problems at the shipyards, only to end up re-employing the redundant workers with government, Gonzi said: “Bankruptcy would mean that all jobs there would be terminated, there’s no other way about it. There are no job guarantees at the shipyards. We’ve offered early retirement and redeployment schemes once, and we won’t do it again.”
The shipyards’ management filed a Lm50,000 garnishee order in court against the GWU, declaring its go-slow directives abusive and illegal last week. The union was protesting against the use of sub-contractors and disagreements over night shift arrears.
The government and the shipyards management claimed the actions cost the company thousands of liri in lost work and were putting the company’s viability in serious jeopardy.
“In the case of bankruptcy, the board of directors is personally responsible to declare the company bankrupt, and in that case it would have to close down,” Gonzi said. “I hope this doesn’t happen, but if it does, it will be the fault of a minority of irresponsible workers whose actions are unacceptable.”
The union is now calling on the shipyards to stop the court proceedings but the prime minister said there was no turning back as the damage to the company had already been done.
“The actions ordered last week were all in breach of the collective agreement signed with GWU and now the union has to shoulder responsibility,” he said. “The fact that a conciliatory meeting was held last week is positive but we’ve solved nothing… there are some issues which have been pending for years now and we have to kill them.”
He also ruled out any horse-trading with the union on the court proceedings in exchange for industrial peace on upcoming pensions and health reforms.
“We’re not in a bazaar,” Gonzi said. “I also have to point out that when we announced the upcoming port reforms” – which are expected to end the GWU’s monopoly on cargo handling – “talks at MCESD became even more difficult,” the prime minister said.
He expressed his scepticism about seeing the social pact materialising, even though social dialogue “will remain high on the government’s agenda” – so high, according to Gonzi, that some are now even criticising him for “engaging in too much dialogue”.
The prime minister also promised to remain tough with the EU on Malta’s Objective 1 status, saying this was a crucial matter for the government and that he will be personally lobbying in Brussels to secure the promised funding.
Asked about the judicial inquiry led by Judge Franco Depasquale into the violent beating of asylum seekers by the AFM last month, the prime minister said he was awaiting the conclusions to decide on the measures to be taken in the light of its findings.
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