GWU to take legal action against Freeport

The General Workers' Union is expected to start legal action against the Freeport management over the wages of two port workers suspended during industrial action earlier this year.

Section secretary Charles Agius said the legal action was the next natural step after the Freeport management refused to pay workers it suspended in spite of an agreement reached in the presence of Social Policy Minister John Dalli.

Moreover, he said, the management was refusing to attend a conciliation meeting with Employment and Industrial Relations director Noel Vella.

The case dates back to April when the union, the Malta Dockers' Union and the Freeport management were involved in a dispute over which union enjoyed the majority of membership among Freeport workers.

The GWU had ordered a go slow at the Freeport and the company retaliated by successfully requesting a garnishee order against the union to the tune of €1 million.

Following Mr Dalli's intervention, both parties withdrew their action. But the issue of two of four workers suspended during the industrial action remained pending. The company said the workers had been suspended for breaching company regulations but the union insisted it was because they had obeyed its directives.

Truck drivers have four zones where to park their vehicles during the shift changeover, the company had said. When their shift is about to end, they receive a message on their cabin screen instructing them to park their trucks in one of the four zones. However, that day, the workers parked their trucks close to the Freeport gate, where trucks should not go anyway, signed out and went home. This, the company had said, breached regulations.

Mr Agius said one of the four workers suspended "was forced to sign a declaration admitting he had been in the wrong" and another was fined €12 for breaching regulations. However, the two others were suspended from work for between three and four days.

Mr Agius said the Freeport management had agreed to pay the workers for the days during which they had been suspended and were even close to issuing the cheque but, all of a sudden, it withdrew the agreement claiming the union had made the issue public.

Mr Agius insisted the union had only informed the workers "but news travels fast".

Contacted yesterday, a spokesman for the Freeport management said the position remained the same from day one: the suspended workers' actions were not covered by the union's directives.

On the GWU's threat to take legal action, the spokesman said management would fight its case and let the court decide whether the workers' action to abandon their trucks close to the gate was covered by the directives or not.