Bus drivers were over the moon yesterday as an agreement was reached over a pay dispute that led to a six-hour long nationwide strike on Thursday.

Some 300 drivers took part in the industrial action, disrupting more than 70 routes and reducing the public transport service by half.

The drivers, represented by the General Workers’ Union, had felt aggrieved by what they deemed was an unjust pay cut.

Malta Public Transport agreed yesterday to reimburse the drivers following a conciliation meeting with Transport Minister Joe Mizzi and Transport Malta CEO James Piscopo.

In a statement, the union said the service provider, owned by Spanish firm Autobuses de Leon, agreed to settle the matter by 7pm today.

Sources said the mediation meeting was over fairly quickly also because an unofficial agreement had already been reached even before the meeting started.

About an hour before the meeting began, the union issued a statement warning strike action would be taken again if no deal was struck.

Describing the outcome as “a huge victory for workers”, the union said the company’s decision to reverse the pay cut and repay the money owed was a reflection of how wrong the initial decision was.

Bus drivers gathered at the Valletta terminal yesterday afternoon and toasted their “success” over bottles of Kinnie and pastizzi.

Driver Christopher Zammit said the result had restored his faith in the public transport system.

He was among about 100 drivers who assembled at the terminal during Thursday’s strike.

He had lamented the difficult situations often brought about by management: “Sometimes I get a bus that doesn’t have a horn and when I complain they tell me to shut up and carry on. This is just crazy.”

Union recognition

A legal reform is needed to finally put an end to worsening disputes over union representation, a leading expert on labour relations has warned.

Godfrey Baldacchino, a professor of sociology at the University of Malta, said yesterday the saga of unions jostling for the right to represent workers had reached a new low when members of two competing unions came to blows on Thursday.

He was referring to a fistfight between members of the General Workers’ Union and the Union Ħaddiema Magħqudin during Thursday’s bus strike.

Bus drivers are not the only ones unions are vying to represent.

A stalemate over union recognition persists at the Freeport, again involving the GWU and UĦM.

Another dispute, this time over childcare workers, involves the UĦM and the Malta Union of Teachers.

Prof. Baldacchino said the problem of unions arguing over which had the right to represent workers had been “festering for decades”.

The solution, he said, was for the Employment & Industrial Relations Act to be amended. This should spell out a protocol for resolving situations where more than one union claims sole recognition for the same workers.