Updated at 2pm with report of conciliation meeting today
Broadcasting Authority employees, who last Wednesday started unprecedented industrial action following claims of abuse and bullying by their chairwoman, yesterday refused any mediation on their issue.
A spokesman for the Union Ħaddiema Magħqudin – representing workers – confirmed that the situation was still the same and industrial action would continue and possibly escalate.
Avoiding journalists following a three-hour long meeting of the Broadcasting Authority board last Wednesday, embattled chairwoman Tanya Borg Cardona issued a statement categorically denying bullying claims and abuse of public funds.
“The allegations regarding bullying are not true and are the result of misunderstandings or lack of communication among individuals in the authority,” she said.
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“At the same time, claims regarding irregularities are unfounded,” she insisted, adding “the authority wishes to re-establish a serene climate and is proposing mediation so that differences will be ironed out”.
The Times of Malta is informed that the chairwoman’s denial of bullying and aggressive behaviour towards her staff has further infuriated the employees.
“If she thinks that we are liars she is very mistaken,” one employee said. Another employee said Ms Borg Cardona has also been faced with legal letters over her actions.
“She has crossed the line with us a long time ago,” she said. In one of the e-mails seen by this newspaper, Ms Borg Cardona warns her staff that they will be treated like schoolchildren.
Repeating her instructions to clear their desks, she wrote: “Now you all have until Friday closing time to do so. Since you are behaving like schoolchildren you will be treated as such.”
The chairwoman is also facing accusations of abuse of public funds. UĦM secretary general Josef Vella last Wednesday said that while the authority had entered into a contract to hire a car for the use of the chair and other senior employees, Ms Borg Cardona was receiving a car allowance higher than that stipulated in the rules.
Asked whether he stuck to his claim after the chairwoman’s denial, Mr Vella said that what he had stated was still valid.
Despite a petition sent to Prime Minster Joseph Muscat to intervene and stop Ms Borg Cardona, Dr Muscat took an arm’s length approach and said the BA was a constitutional body and he could not interfere.
All BA employees observed a one-hour strike on Wednesday and are currently following a number of industrial actions including not monitoring TV programmes – the BA’s most important role.
According to employees, while Ms Borg Cardona has lost the support of PN appointed members, she still enjoys the trust of Labour’s appointees – Frans Ghirxi and Alessandro Lia.
No agreement reached in conciliation meeting today
No agreement was reached in another conciliation meeting today. The chairwoman was not present for the meeting.
During the meeting, which lasted one hour, the authority management offered the limitation of the chairwoman’s role to be limited to a non-executive one while the decisions taken by the board would be scrutinised.
The UĦM said this was a little too late as the chairwoman already had a non-executive role and there was no guarantee that the bullying would stop.