(Adds Palumbo's statement)

A company contracted by Palumbo to carry out grit blasting and other works on ships and tankers has not paid its workers their November wages, the General Workers’ Union said.

The company Petronav Ltd, employs 30 people and has been, for the past three and a half year subcontracting for Palumbo.

The union said it contacted the company to see what the problem was and found that the company was not being paid for its services by Palumbo and as a result was in financial difficulties.

It was believed that Palumbo owed Petronav close to €1.5 million, the union said.

It said it was seeing how to put pressure on Palumbo to honour its contractual obligations with Petronav so that workers could get paid.

However, in a counter statement, Palumbo said that it had a dispute with Petronav and it now appeared that the latter was failing to honour its obligations with its workforce as well as Palumbo.

Palumbo deplored the fact that the General Workers Union rushed to print without investigating the cause of dispute especially since the union always insisted that the obligation to pay one's workers always rested squarely upon the employer, in this case, Petronav.

Palumbo said it was working to resolve the dispute and appealed to Petronav to do the right thing and pay its workers.