Former dock workers to join private firms

Workers of the government-owned Industrial Projects and Services Limited will be redeployed to the private sector, under a new agreement between the government and the Federation of Industry.

IPSL was set up to absorb workers who had been laid off and who had not accepted early retirement in the shipyards' restructuring process last year. A total of 143 IPSL workers had been assigned to local councils, 116 were seconded to the Ministry of Education, and various government entities and other ministers absorbed 229.

The workers had been redeployed according to "necessity" but the problem of excess workers was not resolved even though the government had bound itself to keep them on its payroll. But thanks to the arrangement signed yesterday, the 482 ex-shipyard workers will be retrained and employed by the private sector over a three-year transition period.

Information Technology and Investment Minister Austin Gatt said the workers' curriculum vitae would be given to the FOI which would find private enterprises prepared to retrain and employ them. At the end of the three-year period, or even before, companies could choose to employ the workers permanently. If not, they would return to the government.

In the meantime, Dr Gatt said, the workers would still be on the government's payroll. "Companies must provide the government with half the workers' salary - about Lm2,800 - in the first year, 60 per cent in the second year and 70 per cent in the third year of training. The workers would be entitled to overtime where available. They will obviously be given the conditions enjoyed by their fellow employees," he said.

Dr Gatt said this was an important breakthrough because IPSL workers would now receive serious "on-the-job" training that would enable them to fit in to the companies that accept them.

"This will not simply be a vague, theoretical course. The majority of workers are under 50 and that means they are retrainable," he added.

The minister said the agreement also applied to workers who will be made redundant at Public Broadcasting Services.

Dr Gatt referred to the agreement as "a change in mentality" that should set an example for future restructuring processes in government-owned enterprises. He said a copy of the agreement would be sent to the General Workers' Union which had negotiated with the government during the shipyards' restructuring in 2003.

FOI president Anton Borg said this was a very positive move on the government's part. "With this agreement we are allocating valuable human resources to the private sector. The government will also benefit because it will start curbing public expenditure".

Mr Borg said there was interest from a number of sectors including textile manufacturers, beverage producers, toy manufacturers and others.

The federation had received a lot of expressions of interest from other sectors. "There are hoteliers who are ready to take up workers for instance," Mr Borg said, adding that the option was not only open to FOI members.

Malta Investment Management Company (Mimcol) chairman Ivan Falzon signed the agreement on behalf of Industrial Projects and Services Limited.

When contacted, the GWU's deputy secretary general, Emmanuel Micallef said the union was not consulted over the agreement. He said the arrangement that the union and the government had agreed upon specified that IPSL workers would be seconded to the private sector only on a voluntary basis.

"If the workers want to remain at IPSL, they have a right to do so and we will keep insisting on that," he said. Mr Micallef said the union would comment on the new agreement once it received a copy.