Updated: GWU holding meeting tomorrow

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A meeting is to be held by the General Workers Union in Paola tomorrow evening to protest at the way the government is conducting the privatisation of the shipyards.

GWU general secretary Tony Zarb told a news conference that there were several matters which were not clear in the document published yesterday by the government with the call for expressions of interest in Malta Shipyards.

Among other things, it did not appear compulsory for maritime related operations to continue at the shipyards.

Moreover, the fact that the buyer was not being obliged to take on the existing workforce went against industrial law.

When asked if the GWU was discouraging workers from taking up the early retirement schemes, Mr Zarb said the union was just telling workers to assume a wait and see attitude so that possibly the schemes' conditions would improve by the September deadline.

Former Drydocks council chairman Sammy Meilaq said that the government was not to be trusted. In February workers were told there were no plans for downsizing but now that the election had passed, the government was not keeping its promise, he said.