The General Workers’ Union is still waiting to be summoned by the Permanent Commission Against Corruption to give evidence on the Fairmount contracts undertaken by Malta Shipyards and that had cost the country €82 million.

General secretary Tony Zarb said yesterday the union was looking forward to saying all it knew on the Fairmount scandal, which, he said, was the final nail in the Malta Shipyards’ coffin.

He was closing the biennial conference of the union’s metal and construction section.

The Fairmount job involved work on two semi-submersible barges, the Fjell and the Fjord. A report drawn up by Pricewaterhouse­Coopers had found gross mismanagement and serious failings in the estimates drawn up by the shipyards’ marketing manager, who left after serving only six months of his three-year contract. PwC had established that the job was a loss-making venture before it even began.

The government had turned down the union’s request to conduct an independent inquiry into the case.

In his speech, Mr Zarb also accused the government of being an accomplice in the growth of precarious work, with people in hospitals, health centres, government departments, government entities and even the Employment and Training Corporation being employed with precarious working conditions.

Mr Zarb said that most of these entities employed part timers to avoid giving workers the rights enjoyed by full time employees.

In various cases, Mr Zarb said, the unions could not make representations on behalf of the employees because they would not be union members and they would not be willing to join a union because they would be scared of losing their job.

The GWU, he said, was in discussions with the Labour Party on possible policies that could eradicate precarious work.

Mr Zarb said yesterday he met representatives of Air Malta employees to discuss the situation at the national airline. He still could not accept what happened two weeks ago when a group of Air Malta employees “were encouraged” to file a court case against the Airline Pilots Association, which was planning industrial action. He warned workers to beware of “vipers” among them.

Mr Zarb also spoke about the minimum wage, saying this was not enough for workers to make ends meet. He said there were 60,000 people who were on the brink of falling beneath the poverty line.