Workers call for public debate unless claims are met

Shipyard workers yesterday demanded "by right" that a public debate be held unless the management meets their claims which mainly concern the 'yard's engagement of casual workers.

The workers said the debate should be held in the presence of the media between the shipyard management and workers' representatives.

It would be held in a venue away from the shipyards and could either be in English or Maltese depending on the choice of the shipyard chairman and executives, according to the workers.

This demand formed part of a resolution adopted by the workers and forwarded to the management by the General Workers' Union shipyard workers section, yesterday.

In a covering letter to the resolution, the section said that "what the workers are declaring reflects what the section has been discussing with the top management. Hence it could not but agree with the declarations the workers are making".

Last Saturday, while reiterating its commitment to raising productivity at the, yard, the GWU had urged the management to avoid work practices that weakened the workers' morale. The union does not accept that foreign workers engaged to cope with the workload be preferred in the assignment of overtime.

Last night, the GWU media office issued a statement to announce that its section had forwarded the resolution to the management, a copy of which has been seen by The Times.

The media office provided a lengthy summary of the resolution but left out the part where the workers expressed their intention to "dominate by right" so that the debate would be held.

The workers called for a revision of the contract with Cape, a company that won a call for tenders to provide scaffolding at the shipyards.

Arguing that the contract "granted Cape a monopoly and is costing a lot of money unnecessarily", they requested a revision of the agreement and the involvement of the union in such a revision.

The workers said they had noted "a lot of contradictions by the management regarding casual workers".

While recognising that the management had the right to engage casual workers, they argued that they should strive to engage "Maltese speaking workers to avoid using sign language because in most cases, this is dangerous to us and to them (the other workers)".

The workers claimed "it is scandalous that sometimes more foreign workers are engaged than are needed". "...seriousness calls once and for all for an end to this luxury". Unlike casual supervisors, full-time foremen were not being paid for the overtime work they did. When contacted, a government spokesman said foreign casual workers were engaged by the company when they were needed and the company had every right to do this.

Foremen had been given an increase in pay as well as performance-related bonuses to compensate for the fact that they were no longer in overtime grades, the spokesman said.

"Malta shipyards last year registered losses amounting to Lm8.8 million, which was considerably less than the Lm27 million in 2002, so restructuring is working.

"The government is committed to invest Lm7 million and the management is attracting work. The Lm18 million turnover target for this year has already been reached or been committed. "Now it's the workers' turn to do their job. The government made it amply clear that the company has to be sustainable by 2008. The ball is squarely in their court," the spokesman said.