Agreements to save PBS

Another hurdle in the restructuring of government enterprises was overcome yesterday with the signing of agreements between the government, Public Broadcasting Services and the General Workers Union.

Three agreements were signed yesterday at the Ministry of Information Technology and Investment in Valletta - two dealing with the redeployment of workers and the introduction of early retirement schemes, and a new collective agreement.

The workforce is to be whittled down from 183 to 64. As in the case of the dockyard workers, excess personnel are to be offered either early retirement schemes or alternative employment with the government or the private sector.

As of tomorrow, four retirement schemes will be available for PBS employees, each aimed at a specific age group. It will be at the PBS management's discretion to accept or refuse any application.

The plan provides for the creation of a number of posts and the elimination of others. Managerial posts will be overhauled and fresh applications will have to be submitted, both from within PBS as well as from outside.

The agreement includes radical changes in shifts and the elimination of half-days in summer. One of the clauses states that no PBS workers may work with a competing station.

Since the last collective agreement expired in 2001, it was decided that workers would be given a one-off payment of Lm120. The new collective agreement will remain in force until March 2009.

IT and Investment Minister Austin Gatt said he would be announcing a series of other initiatives in the coming days in a drive to put PBS on a sound footing and in the process improve its quality. These include the outsourcing of programmes and a change in the news content.

Dr Gatt said that every party involved in the negotiations gave up something to reach agreement.

GWU section secretary Karmenu Vella admitted that it was difficult to squeeze out a deal over PBS, but pointed out that nobody should have allowed a company to end up in such a state.

PBS was costing the government up to Lm2.5 million a year. He said he hoped that the restructuring process mapped out for PBS would now put the company on a sound financial basis.

GWU deputy general secretary Manuel Micallef said that both the union and the workers were demoralised by the situation at PBS but both realised the need to rectify the matter. It was however a priority for the GWU to secure jobs.

Mr Micallef underlined the importance of the role of PBS, insisting that a national state broadcaster was essential in every country.

He augured that there would be less political interference in PBS in the future, a comment dismissed by the minister, who said that this was often a misconception.