The UHM said today that it saw no reasons to withdraw a directive for freeport workers to down tools if foreign workers were directed by the management to operate any machinery or vehicles.

The union said that it had a meeting with the company during which it objected to the foreign workers and called on the company to train Maltese on all freeport operations. The union said it was never consulted by the authorities on the foreign workers and it saw no reason to withdraw directives for freeport workers to down tools if management asked the foreigners to use machinery or drive vehicles.

The company insisted that the foreign workers should be allowed to work, once the government had issued work permits.

The issue of foreign workers was raised last Saturday by PL leader Joseph muscat, who said Maltese workers were being sidelined in preference of foreigners who were paid less.

Malta Freeport denied Dr Muscat's claims. It said Maltese workers were being consistently engaged as multi-skilled operators, despite the international crisis.

It said it engaged six workers from Sri Lanka last year after several calls for the engagement of specialised quay crane operators and talks with the union. The six workers were offered the same conditions as Maltese workers.

Martin Caruana, secretary of the UHM's port and trade section, said the Sri Lankan workers arrived in Malta last month to do the same work as the Maltese. He said the freeport was saying it needed more workers who were already trained, but the UHM was insisting that the work should be done by the Maltese and they could be trained, as had happened in the past.