Industrial action at Enemalta halted

Industrial action at Enemalta Corporation was called off yesterday evening after the General Workers' Union and the management agreed that pending issues could be solved through conciliation.

A meeting between the two parties, with industrial relations and employment director Frank Pullicino as mediator, started at 4.15 p.m. and was adjourned at about 9 p.m. It is expected to resume today at 11 a.m.

The industrial action had included directives issued on Monday to aviation section workers, which led to a temporary halt in the aircraft refuelling service, and a "fuel strike" ordered yesterday that caused panic buying at petrol stations.

Before agreeing to conciliation, the GWU and the government chided each other at two successive press conferences, the first by IT and Investments Minister Austin Gatt at 1.30 p.m., when he was flanked by Enemalta chairman Tancred Tabone and chief executive officer Ray Attard, and the other called by the union soon after.

The two sides insisted they would only budge if the other gave in first and accused each other of taking "illegal" actions.

GWU deputy general secretary Emmanuel Micallef said the union would accept to attend a conciliation meeting "when Enemalta accepted the aviation section employees back to work". Dr Gatt insisted that the suspension of workers would be withdrawn if the GWU lifted the directives first, thus expressing the management's good will to have a conciliation meeting.

At one point it was realised that the stand of both parties could converge and, indeed, the GWU and the management agreed that the union would lift all directives and Enemalta would allow aviation section workers back to work.

A number of workers waited outside the building housing Mr Pullicino's office in Valletta where the meeting was being held.

At about 7.30 p.m. a representative of the workers informed his colleagues that aviation workers working the 9 p.m. shift should return to work as the GWU had lifted the directives. Industrial action was lifted in all other sections.

At the press conference earlier, Dr Gatt had said the directives issued by the GWU at the corporation's aviation section and at the Marsa power station were not in line with what was stipulated in the collective agreement, which laid down that "essential public services shall be maintained at all times".

"The GWU was obliged to issue directives only after asking for a conciliation meeting and after informing the management about industrial action two days in advance," Dr Gatt said.

On Thursday, the GWU's chemicals, energy and printing section secretary, Gejtu Mercieca, produced a letter which he said showed that, as early as March 7, the union had asked for a meeting and informed Enemalta it would take action if it received no reply by the end of that week.

But Dr Gatt yesterday said the management had replied by March 11, asking the section secretary to list the pending points.

"Mr Mercieca wrote to the industrial relations director on Thursday evening to say he wanted conciliation. This morning he extended directives. This is berserk," he said, accusing the GWU of threatening to bring the country to a standstill over "petty" issues.

But Mr Micallef charged back saying the government had blown a "simple" directive out of proportion in order to launch an attack on the union.

"Dr Gatt is attacking trade unionism with his Thatcherite attitude. We had every right to call industrial action and suspending workers was very wrong," Mr Micallef insisted.

The minister's threats against workers who were on strike were unacceptable, he said.

Mr Mercieca denied that "workers were not obeying their union's directive" saying that the nine workers who had returned to work at the aviation section were not GWU members but members of the Union Haddiema Maghqudin.

When contacted, UHM public entities section secretary Jesmond Bonello said the UHM was advising its members at Enemalta's aviation section to work normally.

According to Mr Bonello, the UHM was never informed about the directives.