Investment shows government commitment to shipyards - Gatt

Investments Minister Austin Gatt yesterday denied opposition claims that the government wanted to close down the shipyards, saying that had that been the case, the government would not have planned a major reform and investment programme but would simply have divided its planned investment among the workers and closed down the two yards.

"We could have simply handed out Lm40,000 to each of the 2,600 workers and closed down the yards. That would have been advantageous politically and everybody would have clapped," he said.

But the government believed the shipyards had a major role in the country's economy and thus wanted them to be reformed and become financially viable, the minister said in parliament.

He was winding up the debate on the Dockyard and Shipbuilding Yard (Restructuring) Act, which was later given a second reading, the opposition voting against in a division.

Dr Gatt said the reform plan of which this bill formed part was only the last of a process started many years ago which had seen the number of workers reduced to 1,700 workers from close to 8,000 in 1987.

Workers were not being laid off because the government believed in solidarity.

He had never expected everybody to be pleased with everything that had been agreed upon. Every restructuring process was difficult. But many of the remarks made by opposition speakers in the debate were based on sentimentalism and ignored the realities of life.

The yard was there to make profit, its work was dictated by the market and this could not be ignored. Malta could not continue being an exception to the whole world.

The reality was that one had to either be economically viable or stop working. That was why the restructuring process was taking place. There were many shipyards which had closed down. Malta was no exception unless the yard could be made viable.

He could not understand how the government could be accused of bending to EU pressure when 90 per cent of the restructuring plan had actually been approved by the Sant government.

It made no sense for opposition speakers to argue about work being awarded to the shipyards on the basis of political talks. That time was past. Indeed, although Malta Shipbuilding had won several such orders on that basis, it had managed to make a loss on all of them - including the Gozo ferries ordered by the Maltese government itself. Nor did it make sense to argue that the shipyard workers should have been employed to replace Malta's bus fleet. What would happen after that?

Dr Gatt said he could not see how work on the La Salle and other warships could have scared away tourists, as opposition MPs claimed. Naples was constantly full of US vessels. Did tourists not go to Naples?

What was needed at Malta's shipyards were modern work practices and reliability. Following the work on the La Salle, Malta Drydocks carried out conversion on the cruiseliner Marco Polo. But the last time there was a cruise liner at the yard, the workers decided to go slow and strike and the word quickly spread that the Malta yard could not be trusted. It was ship owners alone who now decided where they sent their vessels, and they would not risk them in shipyards where they risked having the ships delayed because of strikes.

Dr Gatt said he could not give any guarantees that the Maltese shipyards would be successful. Clearly, if they wanted to be competitive, they also needed to substantially raise their productivity level to above the current 28 per cent.

The shipyards had lost money from eight out of every 10 jobs they won because one shift would work on the job while all the rest of the work would be carried out on overtime.

The government's problem could be that when it embarked on restructuring in the 1990s it did not have courage to attack work practices then.

Turning to the transfer of 900 workers to alternative jobs or early retirement, Dr Gatt said the union knew of the plan all along and it had been agreed that the workers would be selected by the management in terms of agreed criteria.

It had also been agreed that workers seeking redress should utilise available tools and go to the ombudsman or an industrial tribunal.

Concluding, Dr Gatt said this reform was a difficult process not just from an economic and financial point of view, but also because it involved a culture change. But this was a reform based on solidarity, a reform aimed at achieving solutions.

Nationalist MP Tonio Fenech (who spoke on Tuesday) said he could not understand allegations by the opposition that the government had a hidden agenda on the shipyards' reform. This was hardly the case since the government had undertaken to absorb the Lm300 million debts accrued by the shipyards. Besides, another Lm90 million were going to be invested in the improvement of this facility.

This government understood its social obligations and that was why 900 employees who were surplus to the shipyards' needs were being offered alternative jobs.

It was worth noting that in 1987, there were over 7,000 workers at the dockyard. This figure has gone down to around 2,000, which meant that the other 5,000 workers had managed to find alternative work and to survive even if not employed by this entity.

Referring to claims that the government was acting because of EU pressure, Mr Fenech said the EU would not allow a state subsidy so as to pay wages. State aid had been given to the shipyards for over 50 years and this was not possible any longer.

Mr Fenech said competitive prices should not be the only factor to be promoted when marketing was made. There should also be increased focus on the dockyard's ability to respect deadlines. But it had to be assured that this company worked efficiently.

It was unfortunate that 900 employees had to be offered alternative jobs. Some complained that this process was unfair, whilst others complained that the government had been too generous in offering these alternatives. This showed how much the government acted responsibly in the shipyards' reform.

Rather than criticising the government for its deeds, the opposition should have given its own proposals for the shipyards' reform.