Negotiations between Playmobil Malta and the General Workers’ Union carried on yesterday but there was no breakthrough after the company’s decision to lock its workers out of its Ħal Far factory for more than two hours on Monday morning following an industrial action.

The union is in dispute with the company, which employs 800, over the workers’ collective agreement and financial package.

GWU section secretary Jason Deguara described yesterday’s meetings, mediated by Industrial Relations director Noel Vella, as “fruitful” and said he was hopeful an agreement would be reached “by the end of the week”.

Although the two sides have not established a time or date for a next meeting, Mr Deguara said “the GWU is willing to meet Playmobil management at midnight if needs be”. Negotiations are mainly focused on issues relating to the workers’ financial package, with the GWU also insisting they are to be paid for the hours during which they were locked out.

Mr Deguara said negotiations on the collective agreement began nine months ago, with discussions on the financial package starting last May.

A conciliation meeting held last Thursday failed to yield positive results, leading to the GWU announcing industrial action. The union ordered its workers to refrain from filling in paperwork related to ISO certification. At no stage, however, Mr Deguara clarified, had workers been told to bypass or ignore any ISO-related safety and quality checks.

Playmobil responded by locking workers out of its factory. Workers who showed up for work at 6 a.m. on Monday found the gates closed and an affixed notice explaining the decision. The note stated how, following the GWU’s industrial action, the company had “no other option but to stop all operations until further notice”.

Executive and clerical Playmobil employees, who are members of a separate union, Union Ħaddiema Magħqudin, were also locked out, Mr Deguara said.

Following an urgent meeting between GWU top officials and Playmobil management, it was agreed to suspend the industrial action pending further negotiations and reopen the factory gates.