Workers offered public-sector posts

Sea Malta employees will be given the opportunity to apply for vacancies within the public sector, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi announced yesterday.

It is expected that all of the defunct shipping line's shore-based workers will be engaged.

Speaking after a Cabinet meeting, Dr Gonzi said the government had decided that these employees should be given the chance to fill vacancies within government-owned companies and corporations. They will not, however, be able to join the civil service.

Dr Gonzi said the government had guaranteed employment for shore-based workers before the privatisation process was stopped in its tracks by the General Workers' Union.

He said a call for applications will be made for filling specific vacancies within government-owned agencies. Once chosen, the employees would be engaged on a full-time basis.

Meanwhile, Sea Malta's board of directors yesterday approved a resolution to liquidate the company. It will stop trading with immediate effect.

The chairman will write to all creditors to establish the amounts owed by Sea Malta. A creditors meeting will be called and a liquidator appointed.

By law, the company has 14 days within which to establish claims against it and to call a meeting for creditors.

Employees were informed that the company had ceased trading and that they were on paid leave until the recruitment process for each individual ends.

Company employees had to take away their personal belongings and to return keys and other goods belonging to the company.

The Grimaldi Group yesterday announced that its company Malta Motorways of the Sea will start offering a service from today.

"This will provide the industry with new and efficient sea transportation services linking the Maltese Islands with the Italian mainland and the rest of the Mediterranean," the company said.

The service will be operated by the mv Malta Express, a 11,500 gross tonne Malta-registered ro ro passenger ferry with a service speed of 17.5 knots, 48 cabins, 133 berths and a capacity of 1,300 lane metres.

The service will run between Malta and Genova, Catania and Salerno on a weekly fixed day schedule with a return voyage from each port to Malta.

The Eurostar Salerno will continue to operate its established schedule between Malta, Salerno, Tunis, Civitavecchia and Palermo.

The service from Genoa and Tunis to Malta will run on Saturday, from Malta to Salerno on Sunday and Tuesday, from Malta to Catania and vice versa on Monday, from Salerno to Malta on Wednesday and from Malta to Genoa on Thursday.

In addition to these routes, importers and exporters will be able to link up to other Grimaldi routes which form part of the Euromed Network covered by the group.

A spokesman for John Ripard & Son Ltd said the unfolding story of Sea Malta gave the public the impression that the current Malta-Sicily-Malta connection was in the balance.

"John Ripard & Son Ltd has been offering this and other routes for decades. Our company has been offering freight and shipping services to the local industry and the business community for over 100 years. We are considered pioneers being the first company to operate container vessels and to hold transhipment operations at Malta Freeport," a company spokesman said.

"In 1998 we set up the Medex Container Line. Medex is a Maltese owned company and today we are operating a 400 TEU Maltese owned and registered specialised container vessel with capacity also for 60 refrigerated containers, accepting hazardous cargo to service industry and having over 1,000 containers in circulation including special equipment to cater for bulk cargo such as marble, gravel and other out of gauge cargo. In addition to full containers we are also offering groupage services to cater for small consignments.

"The port of Pozzallo, Sicily is included in the itinerary of our vessel together with Tunisia, Valencia and Barcelona," the spokesman said.