Lightning strikes at PBS possible

Lightning strikes are expected this week at Public Broadcasting Services unless the government gives the General Workers' Union concrete proposals on the way the company is expected to operate.

The union is at loggerheads with the government because, while not opposing restructuring plans, it feels the state is determined to whittle the workforce down to 50 when a Mimcol report commissioned by the government speaks of a workforce of 85.

The union is also upset because talks about restructuring had started in 2001 but had hiccuped along and were eventually scuppered each time the board or the chairman were changed.

The GWU section secretary for services and the media, Karmenu Vella, last week told PBS workers that various reports had been made about the need to restructure PBS over the past years and that none of these had been implemented. This only served to demotivate staff and to create uncertainty and increase tension at PBS.

Mr Vella said each time there was a change in government, minister or chairman, there were always radical changes that dismantled anything built previously. Experiments were then again conducted to start building afresh, he said.

The collective agreement for PBS expired three years ago and the union has been insisting on a draft of the new one for the past months. Its efforts intensified after October, when Investments Minister Austin Gatt announced that PBS had to be restructured and talks had to start in earnest.

Mr Vella told PBS staff the draft collective agreement sent to the union recently was not radically different from what had been discussed in the past but the problem was that the union had not been given the staff complement list being proposed by the government.

The union also wants to know what programmes PBS will be farming out, which departments at PBS would be retained and the format of the retirement schemes.

The union also wants to ensure that the choice of those remaining at PBS would be a transparent one, based on just and set criteria. Furthermore, the GWU is not accepting any job losses at all costs.

Contacted yesterday, Mr Vella said the union was convinced there were departments at PBS that could make money, such as the archives section.

"It is also about time the government starts paying for air time used on PBS. Just as the government pays Air Malta for air fares, or Maltapost for the postal service, it should also pay PBS for air time it uses," Mr Vella said.

"Unless concrete proposals are received forthwith, we cannot leave PBS workers in this state any longer and we will have no option but to turn to industrial action," Mr Vella warned.