The Finance Ministry insisted today that the privatisation of Malta Shipyards fully respected the EU Transfer of Business Directive.

Reacting to a letter sent by Alternattiva Demokratika to Vladimir Spidla, the EU Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, the ministry said the bidders who would be awarded the shipyards would have to take over the workforce should the transfer of business take place.

The ministry insisted that the government never said it had commissioned a report to justify the number of workers who would have to leave the shipyard before privatisation.

This exercise was not even possible since only the expressions of interest could shed light on the type of activity the private sector deemed more viable. Furthermore, before issuing the Expression of Interest document, government officials discussed it with DG Competition officials.

The ministry explained that the figure of 700 was reached on the basis of internal management reports made by the shipyard management .

There had also been assessments by other shipyards that last year had expressed an interest in somehow participating in the shipyard but had withdrawn their interest particularly because of the high employment levels.

The government had also reviewed employment levels of similar shipyards in the region,including Palermo (around 530), Hellenic (Greece) (around 220), and Lisnave (Portugal) (around 350 workers).

The ministry said it wanted to remind AD, that failure of the privatisation process would not only mean that the workers would have no new business to go into, but would exclude the possibility for the government to offer voluntary early retirement and resignation schemes.

"The Maltese Government affirms that the process that has been undertaken is not only intended to respect the social obligations emanating from EU Directive 2001/23/EC relating to the transfer of business, but rather to ensure that we will have a successful privatisation that will allow us to transfer the remaining workers on the books of Malta Shipyards Limited to the new undertaking/s," the ministry said.