10 years ago - The Times

Saturday, September 6, 2008

Retirement schemes topped by €9 million

The government and the General Workers’ Union (GWU) yesterday agreed on the shipyards’ privatisation, basically topping the retirement scheme fund on offer by a further €9 million.

Clearly pleased with themselves, Finance Minister Tonio Fenech and GWU secretary general Tony Zarb announced the deal during a press conference in the afternoon. The agreement was signed by both sides and by the previously unnamed mediator, the Malta Employers’ Association’s director general Joe Farrugia.

In essence, the main points of the agreement concern the money made available for the retirement schemes, which will be increased to €58 million, from the previous €49 million. The agreement also refers to what will happen to workers who do not opt for early retirement. On this latter point, in fact, the government has committed itself to try and negotiate a work guarantee with the ’yard’s prospective buyer for a still undetermined number of years.

Moreover, should the buyer have a problem with the number of workers left on the company’s books after the schemes expire, the government and the union will form a joint-commission to seek alternative employment for the excess workforce.

25 years ago - The Times

Monday, September 6, 1993

GWU-Air Malta dispute

The General Workers’ Union is in dispute with Air Malta over a staff circular.

The union said the airline was calling for applications for promotions “to a grade which does not exist”.

Port and Transport Section secretary  Tony Zarb wrote to the airline saying that according to the collective agreement, new grades and scales of pay could be introduced only by agreement with the union. Mr Zarb insisted that the staff notice be withdrawn.

In another letter to the airline Mr Zarb referred to the appointment of chief messenger, which was done without discussions with the union. Mr Zarb said the union would not tolerate such behaviour and called on the airline’s chairman to see that management personnel who dealt with industrial relations were credible persons.

Fire in Sliema flat

The police are investigating the cause of a fire which started in a flat in Borg Olivier Street, Sliema, yesterday morning.

The police are suspecting that someone broke into the flat, ransacked it and then set fire to one of the rooms. The fire started at about 11am, in the spare bedroom.

Half a century ago - Times of Malta

Friday, September 6, 1968

More yachts at Msida quay – urgent need for facilities

“The services to be provided compare well with those found in other marinas in the Mediterranean.” These words are taken from a press release from the Ministry of Public Building and Works in November 1966, giving information of works undertaken by the ministry at the Marina.

This promise has not been fully kept so far. There is a crying need for services at the newly-constructed quay running down one side of Msida Creek.

All there is at present is an open space ‒ a filled-in area between the quay walls and the actual shoreline alongside the road. Covered with a layer of fine white dust, it has been the bugbear of yachtsmen who had berthed there, a source of inconvenience also to the residents of the area.

No light, no telephone, no buoys laid, that is the upshot. Not even the verge of the road had been tidied up. An electric lamp standard – one of the concrete ones which, happily, are being replaced by more slender and more modern-type poles – still remains fixed solidly in the ground about four or five feet from the concrete retaining wall of the quay. A veritable trap to the unwary driver, said one yachtsman yesterday.

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