There was a fresh twist to the deadlock between the government and the General Workers' Union over the privatisation of the shipyards yesterday, when the union termed "illegal" a clause in the call for expressions of interest that the government published in international media on Monday.
The freshly hatched dispute concerns a section which states that buyers will not be obliged to take on any of the current employees.
GWU secretary general Tony Zarb said yesterday that the Transfer of Business Act, which was transposed from EU law into the Maltese statue book last year, stipulates that a business changing hands "shall not constitute sufficient grounds for dismissal of employees by both the seller and buyer".
The government reacted later in the day, saying the clause was included because the number of workers on the books still had to be determined once the retirement schemes process was over.
Moreover, the government does not want to have bidders using the fact that they are taking on employees as a bargaining tool, the government added. Yet, theoretically, if no bidder takes any of the workers who do not take up any of the retirement schemes, the government would enter a legal bind.
Addressing shipyard workers outside the yards' main gate in Cospicua in an impromptu meeting which was called in reaction to the call, Mr Zarb insisted that the union would not accept such an outcome.
One of the bones of contention between the government and the union centred precisely over the union's call for the government to give workers an employment guarantee.
But while Finance Minister Tonio Fenech consistently excluded this demand, he said the government would only guarantee a future to the workers if the privatisation process succeeds.
That outcome has been tied, on the government's part, to the reduction of the present workforce, which tops 1,600, to about 700.
Despite the warnings to the government, Mr Zarb was rather placid, unlike union section secretary Sammy Meilaq, who was cheered on by his mates the minute he mouthed the first sentence.
He announced that a manifestation would be held today in Paola for the workers and their sympathisers, yet later the union clarified that the gathering would be a meeting only and not a demonstration.
He insisted that the union was not against the privatisation and was not even trying to dissuade anyone from taking up the early retirement schemes on offer.
"We are just telling workers to wait for the time being, especially seeing that the deadline is in September," he said.
Mr Meilaq, however, took it one step further, saying the union could not be blamed, given that the government was not trustworthy.
"This is a government that says one thing in February and does another in May," he said to a loud cheer, referring to pre-general election statements by the Prime Minister that the government had no plans to downsize the 'yards.
"The government is basically saying, 'I'm now comfortable in Castille, I don't care about you anymore'... what we're being offered is not a choice, it's like being taken to the edge of a cliff and told: Now you either give me everything or you jump. That's no choice," he said.