Are we in for a long, hot summer? We probably are, but it's not the high temperatures which should worry us. Rather, it is the industrial relations climate which seems to be hotting up as Parliament debates the new labour law.
Speaking at the Malta Employers Association's annual general meeting on Wednesday, Tony Zarb, general secretary of the General Workers Union, while insisting that his union - the country's most powerful - was objecting to "blemishes" in the law which in his view restricted workers' rights, appealed for further negotiations with the government. He was moderation itself.
The following day, however, Mr Zarb - facing an audience of union members, this time, not employers - struck a much more militant note. He warned the government it would be facing "serious trouble" unless it removed or radically changed Clause 64 of the bill, which would include hundreds of additional workers among those deemed to be giving an "essential service" and thus not entitled to resort to strike action.
Mr Zarb insisted that his union would never act irresponsibly. He recalled various instances in the past where GWU had acted "most responsibly" and mentioned the fact that in various collective agreements, the union had bound itself to provide essential services in emergencies.
Undoubtedly, the head of the GWU occupies a post which carries with it a great deal of responsibility. An important aspect of that responsibility is how to balance the claims and demands of the rank and file with the long-term interests of the workers themselves and also the national interest. Trade union leaders, not least Mr Zarb, must be under constant pressure to take or order industrial action from their members either when this is clearly not warranted or when it would be against the wider interest.
In all circumstances, dialogue should be preferred to confrontation, and the responsible trade union leader would only order industrial actions - and the ultimate action, the strike - when all other attempts to reach agreement have failed.
The immediate issue on which the GWU is objecting is whether employees providing essential services should be prohibited from striking. It is already accepted that membership of the police and the armed forces, for example, is incompatible with the right to strike. It should therefore be obvious that other areas like power and water supply, unloading or loading of certain cargo, should not be considered like other, less vital, sectors of the labour market.
This is because, by their very nature, these areas are highly sensitive and a handful of employees, to prove their point or insist on demands, whether justified or not, can hold the country to ransom by choking the island's essential services and play havoc with its economy and the livelihood of thousands of workers.
The situation would be worse were any of these essential workers to be called out on strike in sympathy with workers involved in a totally unrelated dispute.
The bottom line is that in the present increasingly globalised world, where one must constantly compete in order to survive, certain labour practices of the past no longer make sense. Admittedly we have come a long way, and the social partners today engage in dialogue to an extent undreamed of two or three decades ago. The creation of the Malta Council for Economic (and Social) Development, for example, has served to head off needless industrial actions regarding cost-of-living wage increases.
In the current situation one therefore cannot stress enough the importance of continuous dialogue between the social partners. One has to acknowledge that the new labour law represents an enormous step forward for workers' rights, including generous and family-friendly leave conditions, the establishment of a guarantee fund for employees of a company which has gone bankrupt, ensuring gender equality at work and freedom from sexual harassment, recognition of part-time workers' rights, and many other progressive features.
On the other hand, an effort is being made to remove obsolete and deleterious industrial relations practices such as the ones already referred to.
Employers have come to realise that workers must be treated with dignity and enjoy proper treatment and conditions as of right, but trade unions must also realise that the economic scenario has changed, that local and foreign investment - often lured in the face of stiff competition and as a result of hard work - can be scared off in a matter of hours by ill-advised industrial action and irresponsible behaviour, and business confidence evaporates in a climate of industrial unrest.
The solution lies in ongoing dialogue in an atmosphere devoid, if possible, of any incendiary talk. The Maltese summer is hot enough as it is.