WSC to take disciplinary action

The Water Services Corporation intends to take disciplinary action against a number of workers who the management believed were acting "beyond" the directives given by the General Workers' Union.

The union and the WSC are at loggerheads over the collective agreement which expired in December 2000.

The WSC management said it felt compelled to hold a press conference yesterday to give its side of the story over the dispute which has been dragging on for three months.

WSC chairman Michael Falzon said some of the corporation's workers were unilaterally taking unofficial action which was not covered by the industrial directives.

Mr Falzon said it had transpired that employees had claimed more than once that they had not located water overflows reported by residents.

It was only after a particular case had been reported in a newspaper that the workmen located the damage and repaired it.

Mr Falzon said there had also been several reports of people saying they were told by WSC workers that industrial directives precluded them from dealing with complaints when this was not the case.

The chairman urged the public to "bear with us", even though the situation had dragged on for nearly three months.

The GWU has given a number of industrial directives, some of which have resulted in delays in the repair of faults, he said. The directive affects some 1,200 employees.

Among others, the GWU instructed its members not to use any means of communication and not to provide any supplies to contractors from any WSC store.

The union eventually also instructed its members to stop all services to government departments, local councils and public entities.

Mr Falzon said the GWU had also refused to exclude urgent repairs such as those on water outflows in roads.

In order to weaken the effect of the actions, the corporation had reached an agreement with Maltacom and faults were being reported on telephone number 157 or 21249851.

He said that as a result of the GWU actions, contractors from entities such as the roads department had been affected, since they required a WSC permit before embarking on works.

In order to avoid putting a halt to all roadworks, members of the management had to personally go to the stores to provide the material required by contractors.

Mr Falzon said the point of contention in the whole dispute was a financial one. While WSC employees used to earn Lm10 more than civil servants in the same grade, this was no longer the case since civil servants had been given a hefty increase in their last collective agreement.

During negotiations on the collective agreement, the union had asked for WSC employees' wages to be set at Lm8 higher than the wages of civil servants, but this could not be accepted.

Mr Falzon said the GWU had reduced its original request but he did not say what the union was currently asking for.

The issue has now been referred to the industrial tribunal.

When contacted, section secretary Josephine Attard Sultana said the GWU had not received any reports of workers acting beyond the union's directives.

In a statement, the GWU accused the WSC of holding the press conference to excuse its own intransigencies and to incite the public against workers obeying the directives.

The union urged the corporation to be credible and not to make statements for ulterior motives.

It accused contractors for any delay currently taking place and urged the corporation to stop blaming its employees.

The union claimed that over the years the government had taken work from the WSC workers and systematically passed it on to the contractors.

Should such work be given back to the corporation workers, the government would save up on its expenditure, the union said.

It said it had been forced to resort to industrial action after the government kept making "miserly offers" to the workers.