Employees of a government-owned company will no longer be considered as second-class workers, according to a GWU official.
General Workers’ Union section secretary Paul Bugeja said Industrial Projects and Services Limited (IPSL) workers, who have been without a collective agreement for 11 years, would now see their wages increase and benefit from an array of working conditions they could not even dream of before, such as family-friendly measures.
“This collective agreement is a breath of fresh air for these workers who were already fighting hard to shed the stigma they were branded with. Now, they will no longer be considered as second-class workers,” he said when contacted.
IPSL was set up in 2004 to absorb workers who were made redundant following the closure of Malta Shipbuilding, the Malta Shipyards, Kalaxlokk Co. Ltd, the Malta Development Corporation, Metco and Sea Malta. They were assigned to different government departments and local councils.
This is a breath of fresh air for these workers who were already fighting hard to shed the stigma they were branded with
The more than 400 workers will see their salaries pegged to those of the civil service, with the pay difference split over three years and expected to be brought in line by 2016.
Moreover, since the workers never had a collective agreement before and therefore never enjoyed any increments, they would receive a one-time payment of €100 for every year of service at IPSL.
Several attempts to negotiate a collective agreement on their behalf in the past had failed as discussions often stalled, Mr Bugeja said.
Sources said IPSL workers over the years only obtained salary increases in the form of an allowance to reflect their new duties. Now these have been incorporated into their wage structure.
The wage increases, split over the three-year agreement, would be backdated to the beginning of this year, he said.
When asked about amounts, Mr Bugeja said he could not be specific because workers would be receiving different increases, according to the level of their present pay when compared to the rest of the new pay structure.