The government yesterday accused the general secretary of the General Workers' Union, Tony Zarb, of endangering jobs at Sea Malta by saying that they could lose their jobs when he knew that the government had negotiated a way to safeguard them.

In a strongly worded statement, the Ministry for Industry, Investments and Information Technology said Mr Zarb had been sent a letter with information about how the government was negotiating to guarantee that jobs at Sea Malta would not be lost.

"But Tony Zarb, for his own reasons, was keeping this information from the union members to be able to wage his campaign of preoccupation and justify the directives for sympathy strikes," the ministry said.

"This is Mr Zarb's personal campaign. It has no trade unionist basis and he is using the Sea Malta employees as pawns. This can prejudice the privatisation of Sea Malta and that is when jobs can be lost. If that happens, the only person to blame will be Mr Zarb," the ministry said.

The union has denied that it failed to inform members of the offer.