Editorial

It started as disagreement between two trade unions. Yet, unless common sense and responsibility prevails, it may well end up a catastrophe for the country's economy already facing serious threats well beyond Malta's control. Nobody may want that to happen but, alas, the road to hell is paved with good intentions!

The dispute involves the country's biggest union - the General Workers' Union - and the Malta Dockers' Union, which both claim they represent the majority of port workers and insist they should be afforded official recognition at Malta Freeport. The GWU held what it termed as secret ballot but the MDU did not accept the result and the Director of Labour and Industrial Relations then held a verification process through one-on-one interviews. The director of industrial relations declared the MDU enjoyed majority support and this led the GWU to order industrial action.

This is where the trouble really started. The Freeport sought, and obtained, a garnishee order for €1 million against the GWU, which reacted by seeking international support for its cause. Things became complicated when talk started of an international boycott against the owners of Malta Freeport.

This was no longer a matter of a problem between two unions.

In a leader earlier this month, The Times noted that "the GWU-MDU case also highlights a badly needed examination of existing procedures governing membership and recognition to remove ambiguity and, as much as possible, sources of disputes among unions and between unions and employers".

The Employment And Industrial Relations Act demands that trade unions and employers' associations must keep an up-to-date record of the names of their members showing their respective date of membership, identity card numbers, addresses and trades or occupations. The law also empowers the Registrar of Trade Unions to inspect at any time such records.

It is to be assumed that these legal requirements are being met, though it is not clear what the law understands by "members". Does a name appearing on a union's membership book suffice? Or does a member have to be an individual who has paid his/her membership fee to have a right o appear on the books?

In addition, it seems the law does not provide for trade union recognition. On this point, Saviour Rizzo, director, Centre for Labour Studies, University of Malta, has noted that one of the recommendations made by his centre in a memorandum it had sent to political parties prior to the March 2008 general election was to make the issue of trade union recognition "unambiguous through an amendment of the law". He also recalled that such an amendment was recommended to the government by the International Labour Organisation in July 2000.

There you go. The government has been advised to address the issue but it let it lie. Now the chickens come home to roost.

What matters now is that no further damage is done. Thus, perhaps all parties involved should agree on a status quo ante, appoint an independent representative who would meet under presidency of the chairman of the Maltese Council for Economic and Social Development to address the matter and come up with a solution acceptable to all.

Yesterday, in a new development, the GWU and the Freeport both appeared willing to enter talks as long as each dropped their respective actions.

This may be a spring of discontent but a delightful summer is possible.