Blame it on the workers

In its editorial of April 6 regarding the performance of the Malta Shipyards it is stated that: "There was time when much of the blame for poor results was put on management for not attracting enough work. This time round, it looks as if the ball has been put back in the workers' court, unless the workers come up with a reasonable explanation for the fact that while turnover rose by Lm3 million, to Lm19.8 million, the yards' loss dropped by only Lm100,000, to stand at a staggering Lm8.7 million."

The paper is toeing Investments Minister Austin Gatt's line and publicly declaring that the workers are solely responsible for the shipyards' poor financial performance.

This is only one possible explanation out of many. Does the newspaper know what profit was built into the additional Lm3 million turnover? It would not be surprising if, in order to win the business against cutthroat competition, management priced the work at a mere 3.3 per cent profit margin (i.e. Lm100,000 on Lm3 million). In that case the workers have done exactly what the management expected, no more, no less. Strangely enough this allegation against the workers comes after an announcement a good while ago that the shipyard workers were paid a bonus!

Minister Gatt and his predecessor Josef Bonnici made a habit of getting political mileage by announcing every contract that was won by the shipyards. However, they always describe these contracts in terms of millions of liri of revenue. They never told us what profit, if any, there was. Chances are the inclusion of profit figures would eliminate all political mileage.

It is a fact that poor sales organisations only sell by lowering prices. Has this paper or the minister questioned the sales skills of the people selling and negotiating work for the shipyards? My experience is that when organisations perform badly it is not the fault of one department.