Employers are calling on the General Workers’ Union to immediately lift the “disproportionate” industrial action at Enemalta which, they say, is hitting businesses badly.

“The dispute is now before the Industrial Tribunal and there is no point in disrupting Enemalta’s operations at this stage,” the Malta Employers’ Association said yesterday.

The GWU last month directed all Enemalta employees to refrain from using the company’s management information system, which forms the basis of its operations ranging from financial administration to stores and street lighting repairs. As a result, many consumers are having to wait for weeks for the installation of new electricity services.

The association said the industrial action was having “a negative impact” on people and businesses that were not involved in the dispute.

The action meant applications for new services were suspended, affecting businesses and the generation of jobs, the association said. “The disruptions caused... are disproportionate to the issue that led the union to take industrial action.”

The GWU said it could not understand why the employers’ association was demanding the directives are lifted. Instead of only making an appeal to the union, the association should have also put pressure on Enemalta to accept the union’s proposals and set up an independent board of inquiry to investigate the corporation’s discrimination against its employees, the GWU said.

It would have “immediately” called off the industrial action had the corporation accepted its proposal, the GWU said.