CMTU decides to stay away from 'holidays' protest march

The Confederation of Maltese Trade Unions will not take part in today's protest march in Valletta called by the General Workers' Union, CMTU president Alfred Buhagiar said.

The CMTU represents 11 unions embracing about 35,000, members, of whom about 5,000 are teachers, represented by the Malta Union of Teachers.

The march is being held in protest against the government's plans to reduce public holidays. The General Workers' Union has about 47,000 members.

The initial measure, announced in the budget, was to stop giving an extra day's leave when a public holiday fell on the weekend but following opposition by the unions, the government said the only way left for it was to amend the Public Holidays Act and declare public holidays falling on weekends as not being public holidays.

The government said the measure was aimed at boosting productivity and competitiveness.

Figures obtained from the Labour Force Survey released by the National Statistics Office show that close to 69,000 people, or over 46 per cent of the workforce, are likely to be hit by the measure.

"As a confederation, we will stay out of this protest march but individual unions within the CMTU can do what they like. It is up to each union to see whether it should take part or not. We cannot order anyone to go or not to go.

"We may have other ways of protesting and if the GWU wanted us to participate, it could have invited us for talks to decide together rather than decide itself and then invite us. We do not need a daddy to tell us what to do and when.

"The unions have taken a common stand in their talks over the civil service collective agreement and are pulling the same rope. The same could have been done here," Mr Buhagiar said.

The Airline Pilots' Association, the Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses, the Union Haddiema Bank Centrali, the Cabin Crew Union, the Air Malta Engineers Association and the Malta Union of Teachers have confirmed their participation. The Front Maltin Inqumu and the Malta Labour Party have pledged their support.

Contacted yesterday, MUT president John Bencini said that in a secret ballot, the vast majority of the MUT council believed the teacher' union should take part in today's protest irrespective of who was organising it.

"But we have made it clear that if the protest is politicised we will leave there and then. The MUT is protesting not just because of the reduction of public holidays but because the austere budgetary measures are always hitting the middle and lower classes and the pensioners.

"It is always these classes who make sacrifices. In addition to these, the government wants its employees to make double sacrifices. The MUT is shocked with measures the government wants to take. The government is using the axe on its employees and on those employees whose salaries depend on the government such as Church schools, the Institute of Tourism Studies, the Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology and parastatal companies," Mr Bencini said.

He said the government wanted to freeze the increments of those working in the public sector, reduce payment to part-timers and stop pre-retirement leave.

"Unions are being made to fight to keep what they had obtained rather than try to get better conditions for their members. We are protesting now so that the government would open its eyes. When measures are taken, as the government seems determined to do, it would be futile to protest as nothing would change. We are protesting to show we do not agree with the government's measures. We are clearly telling the government: Do not do it as you would be creating social unrest," he said.

Mr Bencini said that if workers knew what was in store they would be very angry at what the government was proposing for those working in the public sector.

"The government wants to have the prerogative so that employees in the public sector would work in a fully flexible way, so it can in effect change the working hours of employees at any time," Mr Bencini said.

The GWU's general secretary, Tony Zarb, said the union had been contacted by several employees who were not represented by the GWU and who were very angry and upset that their union was not taking part in today's protest.

Alternattiva Demokratika chairman Harry Vassallo said AD was not yet convinced that the government's unilateral decision to cut public holidays would increase the country's competitiveness and productivity.

"There exists the risk that the drop in morale of the country's workforce could actually turn out to be counter-productive," he said.

Contacted yesterday, the general secretary of the Union Haddiema Maghqudin, Gejtu Vella, said that following Wednesday's lengthy meeting of the Malta Council for Economic and Social Development, when no agreement was reached, the UHM took the initiative to hold more informal meetings with employers' organisations late that same evening.

"At that stage, the UHM decided to write to the government to propose continuing discussions as a way forward through constructive social dialogue. We think we have a formula and we want to try and reach agreement. We believe that with dialogue we can overcome difficulties.

"On this issue we cannot have a situation whereby one appears to be winning and one to be losing. When one sees the options against a bleak economic background one cannot but strive to find solutions," Mr Vella said.

Asked whether he thought that employers associations would be willing to budge once they now knew the government wanted to abolish public holidays falling on weekends for good rather than for just for three years, Mr Vella said that at the MCESD the social partners were discussing measures within a specified timeframe, not permanent measures. Hence the government was wrong in announcing a permanent measure.

Mr Vella said unions and employers resisted changes to the Employment and Industrial Relations Act in the way the government wanted to "but there are other ways of how one can make changes without amending the law," Mr Vella said.

Parliamentary Secretary Tonio Fenech welcomed the UHM's letter and announced a meeting at the Finance Ministry at Castille. The meeting is scheduled for Wednesday.