The Prime Minister has called on General Workers’ Union chief Tony Zarb to resign after he was recorded appearing to suggest that the union could help a company win government tenders, especially if Labour were in power.
The recording was made during a lunch meeting between four people who included Mr Zarb and a cleaning contractor whose workers were employed in what the GWU described as precarious conditions. Excerpts were first broadcast on the PN’s Net TV.
Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi, attending a summit in Brussels, said Mr Zarb’s position was “untenable” and called for his resignation.
Labour Leader Joseph Muscat distanced himself from Mr Zarb’s comments, saying no one could speak for the Labour Party but its own officials. The GWU accused the PN of manipulating its fight against precarious work.
The PN gave The Times access to the 90-minute recording of the meeting, which followed a story that appeared in the union’s paper l-Orizzont about these workers’ precarious conditions.
“If you have a good relationship with us, we will be there hand-in-hand with you...,” Mr Zarb is heard telling the contractor at one point.
In another part of the conversation, a third person named only as the “mediator” in the PN transcript, says: “I already told him (the contractor) that if you have a good relationship with the union, it will help you even with tenders. When they’re issued we can push you.”
To this Mr Zarb says: “...and if things change, even more so,” ostensibly referring to the election of the Labour Party.
The ‘mediator’ later says: “Labour will certainly not let you work”.
Mr Zarb, in another part of the recording, is heard saying: “If your workers are organised in a union...and you’re an employer who is working with the union... do you think such stories that appeared in our papers will re-appear?”
The PN said the GWU would be a “privileged partner” to a new Labour government and called for Mr Zarb’s immediate resignation.
In Brussels, Dr Gonzi said: “I have heard the recordings in the media and I am shocked. The GWU, instead of defending workers, is now trying to negotiate favours with businessmen once Labour is in government. This is not acceptable and Mr Zarb should resign.”
Dr Muscat said what was aired were merely extracts and called for the full version to be broadcast to see whether words were taken out of context. He said nobody within Labour was aware of the meetings.
The GWU claimed the recordings were “deceitful” and constituted “selective editing” of a much longer conversation “in a manner intended to harm it”. This was another of the PN’s attacks against the union and the interests of workers.
The union explained that the meeting had been held following reports of unfair treatment of workers by a prominent cleaning contractor. It transpired that the contractor was submitting offers for cleaning services to the Government at prices indicating his workers would be paid less than the legal minimum. There were also reports of practices intended to prevent employees from joining a trade union, the GWU said.
“The GWU tried to negotiate better working conditions for the employees but it was evident that the good will to improve the working conditions was lacking on the part of the contractor. It was in this context that the GWU newspapers reported that the contractor’s employees were being exploited.”
It said the contractor made contact with the GWU in mid-2012 and days later a meeting took place in which the union sought to address the precarious working conditions.
The issues discussed included allowing the workers to join a trade union, establishing a relationship rather than working against each other, and that the union would do its best to see that contractors with precarious work practices would be excluded from public contracts.
The union said the Labour Party had, long before, taken a position against precarious work in public tenders and it was for this reason that in the conversation it was stated that “if things changed” it would be difficult for the contractor to operate unless it respected employee rights.
The message transmitted to the contractor at the meeting, the GWU said, was that the union would continue to oppose contractors who did not respect their workers, while supporting those who honoured just conditions of employment.