GWU warning over bill

General Workers` Union general secretary Tony Zarb warned yesterday that the union would be forced to mobilise its members if the government failed to make the necessary amendments to the Employment and Industrial Relations Bill.

The union did not distribute copies of its proposed amendments to reporters but said it intended to pass on copies to the government and opposition in the coming days.

Speaking during a news conference at the union`s headquarters in Valletta shortly after a meeting of the GWU`s national council to discuss the proposals, Mr Zarb said the trade union movement would be severely weakened unless the government adopted about 25 amendments to the bill.

Mr Zarb complained that Social Policy Minister Lawrence Gonzi had failed to meet the GWU in spite of repeated requests.

"The government has not found the time to hear what the GWU has to say about its proposed amendments. Dr Gonzi kept telling us that his diary was full of appointments."

Mr Zarb said the union`s council was appealing to the government to refrain from resorting to its parliamentary majority to pass the bill but should include the union`s amendments during the Committee Stage in parliament.

The GWU plans to organise protests against the bill unless it is amended.

The union will also be informing the European Trade Union Confederation, the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions and the International Labour Organisation about the contents of the bill.

Mr Zarb said that one of the main bones of contention related to the number of workers earmarked in the bill as forming part of an essential service and not permitted to strike.

The GWU will be informing its members about its proposals and will start on May 30 with a meeting for port and transport workers.

He said that the government had made about 30 amendments proposed by the GWU after the publication of the White Paper, but these related mostly to conditions of employment.

The other amendments that the union was proposing concerned industrial relations.

The GWU would have preferred two separate bills as the White Paper had originally proposed - the Employment Relations Bill and the Industrial Relations Bill - and not one bill as the government was now proposing.

The GWU will be putting together an information campaign about how the bill will negatively affect workers` rights and the aim behind certain amendments in the bill inserted by the government.

It appealed to other trade unions to study the bill in detail because it contained sections that would undermine the trade union movement.

The union said that its deputy general secretary, Mario Cutajar, did not attend the news conference because he was involved in other trade union matters while shipyard workers section secretary Tony Coleiro was indisposed.