The agreement reached by the government with the General Workers' Union last November brought down the curtain on the Malta Drydocks Corporation and Malta Shipbuilding.

The employees of these crisis-ridden organisations were absorbed by two new state-owned companies, Malta Shipyards and Industrial Projects and Services Ltd.

The bottom line of this major surgery was that 900 workers, considered by the Appledore consultants to be in excess of the shipyards' requirements, were removed from the shipyards and offered alternative employment.

This last restructuring exercise in the dockyard saga was long overdue. Hard pressed with the financial haemorrhage that the enterprise was causing to the country, one government after another tried to tackle the problem by compromising and eventually dismantling the structures of workers' participation.

When the state put itself back in the driving seat at the shipyard in the late 1990s, it was stated that the reforms were to bring about financial sanity to Malta Drydocks and a more efficient managerial control over labour.

Although the institution of collective bargaining was upheld and no immediate dramatic changes were made in working conditions in the aftermath of the collapse of self-management, basic assumptions about the regulation of the employment relationship eventually began to be challenged.

Actually, a task force was set up by the government in autumn 2001 with the aim of formulating a restructuring plan that had to incorporate a new collective agreement with revised conditions of work, work practices and a code of discipline.

That task force introduced a number of voluntary early retirement schemes that were aimed at making a drastic reduction in the workforce.

Under the threat of being made to work a shorter week, about 700 workers accepted the golden handshake and left the shipyards in the early months of 2002.

It was evident then that in the aftermath of the La Salle showdown, the government was finally confident it was able to take the bull by the horns. The government was aware that the General Workers' Union's metal workers' section was not really in a position to enter into confrontation.

The urgency for reform at Malta Drydocks has been constantly stressed by the present chairman, John Cassar White. It was often argued by the chairman that, unless certain "outdated" work practices were done away with and others changed, it would be virtually impossible for the shipyard to compete in a world where foreign shipyards were doing their utmost to outbid competition.

It is certainly true that the current attempt to reform the organisation of work at Malta Shipyards is aimed at improving productivity levels to an extent that will enable the shipyard to be more competitive. However, it is understood that the manner in which enhanced labour productivity and financial viability are being sought may present a challenge to the workers' control over the labour process.

It is inferred that the reaffirmation of the principle of management's prerogative to manage will reshape the balance of power within the negotiation of effort. The envisaged rationalisation of work organisation at Malta Shipyards will be the cornerstone of management's attempt to reassert control at the shipyard in the long run.

Management strategy to reform the work practices is likely to involve the dilution of job boundaries between the trades and between the skilled and non-skilled employees.

Accordingly, the logic of flexibility that will give management greater authority in the deployment of labour will be developed. It is also likely that tradesmen, who have so far enjoyed considerable autonomy in their work, will have some of their privileges withdrawn.

The envisaged reform of traditional work practices will also mean that the reliance on informal rules and understandings will diminish.

In this way, greater emphasis will be put on strictly defined procedures and norms. However, there are likely to be limits to the extent to which this rationalisation process will abolish custom and practice and informal bargaining.

Six years after the government took over the Drydocks' Council, many workers at the shipyard still do not see light at the end of the tunnel.

The fall from grace of some of their once revered heroes may have bred a sense of anomie in the workers' consciousness. In a situation of prolonged uncertainty, the workers' primary concern is either to retain their job or, if it would be possible, to escape from what is seen as a doomed enterprise.

The author holds an MA in sociology.