GWU given deadline over Sea Malta

The Grimaldi Group and the government have given the General Workers' Union until the end of the month to strike a deal with the Italian shipping line over Sea Malta seafarers' employment terms, failing which the company will be liquidated.

Ernest Sullivan, representative for Grimaldi Group subsidiary Atlantica di Navigazione Spa, which wants to buy the government's shares in the company, delivered a final warning to Investments Minister Austin Gatt yesterday. He said that should the GWU remain intransigent over the seafarers' employment terms, then, against its wishes Grimaldi would have no option but to back out of the deal.

Grimaldi is insisting it never agreed to take over Sea Malta without first having reached an agreement with the union over the workers' present tour of duty. The agreement to transfer shares from the government to Atlantica was initialled on October 21. The two sides agreed that the shares would be transferred after discussions with the GWU on the employers' conditions. Atlantica reserved the right to back out if the union did not agree to changes in the seamen's tours of duty.

Both sides had agreed to discuss the changes of the tour of duty from the present 15 days on/15 days off to a two months on/ one month off tour of duty.

But, Mr Sullivan said, the GWU informed the company on November 15 that it was not prepared to fulfil the commitments it had signed on November 4.

As a result of this, in a statement last night, the government said it would be starting the necessary internal procedures to liquidate Sea Malta, but which would not be implemented before November 30, a date stipulated by Grimaldi.

Dr Gatt appealed to the Sea Malta employees to, reflect and decide about their future, and not to let anybody use them for partisan aims.

He reminded workers that it was the government that had secured a safeguard clause and a financial package with Grimaldi, long before the GWU got involved in the process.

It was ironic, Dr Gatt added, that the GWU was on one hand saying it wanted to attract foreign investment and yet it was threatening a €20 million investment in a bankrupt company.

In a statement, the GWU denied it had backtracked from the agreement on Sea Malta. On the contrary, the union said it had started discussions with the Grimaldi Group to revise the collective agreement, and another meeting was lined up for tomorrow.

The basis of the agreement was that Atlantica Spa was meant to assume responsibility of Sea Malta on November 18 and that discussions on the collective agreement had to be concluded by the year's end. According to the agreement, discussions on any revisions should also include the crew's tour of duties, the union said.

It was Grimaldi which was now raising objections to that agreement, it claimed.

It said it was certainly not the union's fault that the transfer of shares had not yet taken place.

If the government had a problem, it shouldn't point fingers at the GWU. "Maybe the government is trying to divert attention from Thursday's national protest," the union charged.

Federation of Industry president Adrian Bajada last night appealed to the GWU to see sense.

"Doesn't the GWU realise that the industry needs Sea Malta? Why does it persist in creating these hurdles at the eleventh hour, especially when the Grimaldi group is offering the Maltese workers the same conditions for Italian workers?" Mr Bajada said.