Overtime work was being paid at normal instead of higher rates, an Air Malta employee complained yesterday at a seminar organised by the Union Ħaddiema Magħqudin, rekindling an election time controversy.
“During the election we had poured scorn on a proposal for overtime to be paid at normal rates but that is how we are ending up. Negotiations are leading us nowhere and it is time for action to be taken,” a UĦM member, who identified himself as an Air Malta employee, said during question time.
At the height of the 2008 election campaign, controversy raged over a comment by then Labour deputy leader Charles Mangion, which many interpreted as being a suggestion to have overtime paid at normal rates to improve competitiveness.
The Director of Labour and Industrial Relations, Noel Vella, told the seminar that payment for overtime was regulated by law and asked employees to report abuse in this regard.
However, UĦM general secretary Gejtu Vella acknowledged the overtime comment, insisting that as a union it faced many situations where employers disregarded the law and pressurised workers to accept such conditions.
Mr Vella cited the example of a “prominent government company”, which he did not mention by name, where the union had to intervene after a pregnant woman was asked to leave her job.
“These are realities we face at the place of work every day. We believe that solutions are best reached by sitting at a table with employers but this union has never and will never desist from taking industrial action if it deems fit to do so,” Mr Vella said.
Celebrating its 44th anniversary with a conference for members, the union yesterday launched a document on its social vision in response to the government’s Vision 2015.
The document tackles six sectors – education, health, the family, democratic institutions, the electronic revolution and better quality of life.
Proposals include that all workers should be entitled to a minimum of 120 hours of paid study leave spread over three years to attend courses.
Another is for public private partnerships to be formed between state and private hospitals to cut down on the waiting list for surgeries.
The government, the UĦM said, should introduce tax relief benefits for families with children.
It said that chairmen of regulatory bodies should be appointed by the President, acting on a resolution of Parliament, supported by the votes of at least two thirds of MPs.
The document says the Auditor General should have the power to refer to the police for further investigation cases where there is prima facie abuse of public funds. Moreover, all recommendations by the Ombudsman should be upheld.
Other proposals are for workers on the minimum wage to be encouraged to participate in apprenticeship schemes, training and courses to upgrade their skills and they would receive an allowance for doing so.
With reference to migrants at Marsa who loiter around every morning hoping to be employed, Mr Vella said this was “a degrading market of work” that led to inhuman and abusive conditions for migrants.
To tackle this situation the union is proposing that all immigrants entitled to work should be registered with the Employment and Training Corporation. Businesses seeking to recruit such workers had to seek approval from the ETC and the wages would be paid to the corporation which would act as a broker between the employer and migrants.
The union is expecting feedback on the document and a final version will be presented to members in a year’s time for approval at the general conference.