The government’s request to unions to give up the last in first out condition so that it would guarantee alternative employment to the dismissed Air Malta employees was an extreme far right measure aimed to politically select the airline’s employees, Labour leader Joseph Muscat said this morning.
Speaking during an interview broadcast on One Radio, Dr Muscat said there was currently a lot of incitement against the Labour Party currently underway at the airline.
He was also not confident that Finance Minister Tonio Fenech was administering the airline’s steering committee in a genuine manner.
Labour, he said, had accepted to form part of this committee to help. But when it requested documents on a number of issues to see what the real situation was and what were the alternatives, it was told that to be given such documents it had to sign an agreement that it would not say anything in public about what it would see.
“They wanted us to become their accomplices in not taking steps and informing the people about the mess the airline is in.
“I have a serious suspicion that we hit the nail on the head in the information we asked for,” Dr Muscat said.
He pointed out that the presentations given to members of the committee were also not being made available in printed form with members being told that the information was sensitive.
“At this point we have remained members of this committee not for the government but for the sake of the workers and the asset.
“If the people give me their trust to lead the next government, I hope I will find a strong airline,” Dr Muscat said.
Dr Muscat also spoke on Enemalta and said it was shameful that the corporation’s bosses as well as the senior management at ARMS had received bonuses when the corporation was in the state it was in.
Enemalta’s administration had a lot to answer for and political cleansing was currently taking place.
This could be seen from what is taking place in the credit control section with. Actions against this section, he said, had started when Charles Magro, a worker in this section, was the whistleblower on works allegedly carried out at Finance Minister Tonio Fenech’s house.
Workers had also been told they were being persecuted because they were members of the General Workers’ Union. He promised his and his party’s support to the workers.
Employees at the Water Services Corporation were also going through major uncertainty and many workers still did not know what their conditions at ARMS were to be. The PL would be following developments and insist on justice, he said.
MINISTRY DENIES POLITICAL CLEANSING ALLEGATIONS
The Finance Ministry denied the allegation of political cleansing at Enemalta and Air Malta
In a statement it said that the reforms being carried out within Enemalta, the Water Services Corporation and ARMS Ltd were aimed at improving the efficiency of the service offered by the corporations.
The Labour leader, the ministry said, was allowing himself to be used by those who were using the issue for personal reasons.
After setting up ARMS earlier in this legislature to take on responsible for bills, the ministry requested Enemalta and the WSC to discuss with government officials the transition of ARMS employees.
The government committed itself to negotiate a new collective agreement to establish conditions of work for ARMS employees following this deployment.
The government’s intention was that if ARMS would require more workers following this process, applications would be issued among Enemalta employees and those in the Credit Control Section would be given the right of first refusal.
But Enemalta employees refused all the alternatives they were given so the management was left with no option but to allocate them to other sections of the corporation. They, however, retained their wages and responsibilities and were offered training.
The GWU opted to be intransigent and insisted it should say who should join ARMS, including employees from the Credit Control Section.
On Air Malta, the ministry said that while the government was working to ensure the country had a strong and viable airline, the Opposition leader speculated on what was said in the media for political mileage to the detriment of the company.
The ministry denied it wanted to chose the workers who should stay with the airline according to their political colour.
It said that for the company’s future to be safeguarded, the best resources had to remain within the company. Should this process fail, the country would end without a national airline and everyone would suffer.
A strong airline, it insisted, would be beneficial to workers, the tourism industry, businesses and the country.
But the opposition’s strategy was detrimental to workers, Air Malta, the tourism industry, businessmen who used the airline, and the country, the ministry said.