The Ministry of Finance has been quoted as giving “the overarching needs of the bank” as the reason for its decision to withdraw the worker-director from the Bank of Valletta board of directors.
What other observers and I cannot understand is why and how the post of an elected worker-director can hinder these “overarching needs of the bank”. Surely, what is good for the Bank is equally good for its employees.
With a track record spanning well over three decades, the worker-director model, the worker-director model has consistently proven to yield good results both to the shareholders and to the general development of the bank. Moreover, since when is the election of a worker-director contrary to “the national interest”? It is not such a long time ago when, politically, the enhancement of workers’ rights, and specifically the various forms of worker participation, was bandied about as the best model of avoiding industrial conflict and promoting dialogue within society.
The current international financial turmoil, if anything, has shown that it is in “the national interest” that the government retains a controlling stake in BOV. The bank has consistently maintained a high corporate social-responsibility (CSR) profile, not least with its employee representation at board level. In this respect, I concur with the view that the elimination by government of the post of worker-director at BOV is a retrograde step, which, it is hoped, will be reversed.

Joseph Abdilla
Tarxien

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