The General Workers' Union yesterday said it had stepped up action at Enemalta in reaction to the corporation's decision to suspend employees in the corporation's aviation section.
The GWU's chemicals, energy and printing section secretary Gejtu Mercieca said at a press conference that a directive to Enemalta clerks not to answer the phone had been issued at 6 a.m. yesterday.
On Wednesday evening, Enemalta Corporation closed down its aircraft refuelling service at Malta International Airport after aviation consultants advised it that the GWU directive telling workers not to fill up refuelling "chits" threatened safety procedures.
Workers on shift were sent home and the rest were told not to report for work. Incoming flights were advised to make arrangements to refuel at other airports.
A limited refuelling service was provided yesterday after a number of suspended employees returned to work.
Calling the union's action "illegal", a spokesman for the IT and Investments Ministry said the GWU had bypassed industrial action procedures stipulated in the collective agreement and that the union was supposed to inform the management two days in advance before issuing directives.
Mr Mercieca countered the claim of illegality, insisting the union had informed Enemalta about the directives "well in advance". He produced two letters the GWU had sent to Enemalta chief executive officer Ray Attard as proof.
In the first letter, dated March 2, the GWU asked for a meeting with Enemalta to discuss a number of unresolved issues including the complement of the aviation section. Mr Attard's secretary acknowledged the letter a day later.
In the second letter, sent to Mr Attard on March 7, Mr Mercieca informed Enemalta the GWU would call industrial action if it received no answer to its request for a meeting "by the end of the week".
Some shifts at the aviation section were so understaffed that some employees worked for a 24-hour stretch, he said.
"It was Enemalta's decision to shut out workers that is illegal and not our directives."
"The GWU will not go to conciliation unless the workers are allowed back to work," Mr Mercieca said.
On whether the workers deemed the union directive "not to fill up the papers" as a threat to safety, which was the main reason cited by Enemalta consultants for urging the corporation to stop the refuelling service, Mr Mercieca said the workers were not filling in the amount of fuel load into "chits" that Enemalta used to invoice airlines.
An Enemalta employee said the workers had been providing details to the aircraft crew on the "specific gravity" and the water content of the fuel. With this kind of data, which includes the fuel's density, temperature and conductivity, the pilot would be able to calculate the fuel load, the employee said.
The worker said the aircraft crew "have a method to calculate the amount of fuel".
The Times is informed that after the directive was ordered, the data was in fact reaching the aircraft crew. In the case of Air Malta airplanes, for instance, an engineer used to take the readings himself and then communicate it to the cabin crew.