GWU demands review of workers' selection criteria

The General Workers' Union yesterday filed a judicial protest urging the government to investigate at once the criteria used to select the 900 workers removed from the shipyards' workforce.

The protest was filed in a show of force as hundreds of workers marched from the GWU headquarters to the courts, in Valletta after they convened for a brief address by general secretary Tony Zarb.

The GWU protest, filed by lawyer Aaron Mifsud Bonnici, is against the prime minister, the government investments and social policy ministers, the attorney general and the Malta Drydocks and Malta Shipbuilding management.

The union is entitled to take legal action within 10 days of the notification of the judicial protest.

In a counter protest, the prime minister, the two ministers and the attorney general submitted that the allegations contained in the union's protest were unfounded.

This, they explained, was because they were informed that the selection of the workers was carried out according to established criteria and in line with the exigencies of the restructured company in order to ensure it reaches the required level of viability to safeguard the jobs involved.

Nine hundred Malta Drydocks and Malta Shipbuilding workers last Saturday received a letter to inform them they can choose one of four early retirement or voluntary redundancy schemes.

Those who refuse to take up the offer will be absorbed by a new company, Industrial Projects and Services Ltd, and seconded to the civil service and public-private partnerships.

Some 1,700 were told they would be retained by Malta Shipyards Ltd.

After hearing the protests of disgruntled workers on Monday, the GWU said the evaluation exercise was tainted and that the management had selected the workers in an "abusive and arbitrary" manner. The union was therefore contending that the workers in question should be granted the necessary remedy.

Speaking during a news conference yesterday, Mr Zarb said there were serious shortcomings in the evaluation exercise.

The selection process was carried out by various individuals from the management, from foremen to division managers.

Workers had to be split according to specific criteria - skills proficiency, commitment and reliability, operational restrictions, flexibility, training aptitude and self-motivation. Sources close to the shipyards said this was exactly how the workers were selected.

Mr Zarb accused the shipyard management of misguiding several workers and said he hoped there was no manoeuvre to derail the agreement reached and signed with the government on November 4.

Workers were urged to fill in the respective forms demanding to see their assessment, after which the union would analyse each case on its merits.

The union also asked the government to extend the one-week deadline for workers to decide over which scheme to choose.

According to Mr Zarb, a substantial number of the 1,700 who have been asked to stay on at the shipyards would rather opt out of the company.

When it was pointed out that the agreement reached was bound to disappoint workers, Mr Zarb said that all the union was interested in was fairness.

The issue has clearly divided the workforce, as several of the 900 workers were heard saying yesterday that the weak and lazy ones were among those retained.

One worker told The Times that since the shedding of the 900 workers the overtime rate in his particular section had shot up.