Maltapost employees

If you ask any Maltapost employee, but mostly the lower ranks, who are about 95 per cent of the total workforce, how things are going at Maltapost, you almost certainly will be told that the workers are in a state of complete uncertainty. This situation has been going on for the last nine years but things have greatly worsened over the last 15 months.

We feel mostly and above all betrayed by the two major political parties.

The present government is making us live a daily state of anxiety. We are being told that 266 employees will have to leave Maltapost to make the company financially viable. No one has told us who these people will be, from which ranks or when they have to leave Maltapost.

About 60 employees are on a definite contract. Their first contract said that, if renewed, they would be given an indefinite one. But they have been renewed another two times, and they all end in May. These workers have been put in a position to accept anything the company proposes. They are not in a state to plan their future, and when anyone tried to help them, the government and the company answered that only the latter would decide.

The ex-government employees who still work with Maltapost were guaranteed the possibility to revert to the government, if Maltapost were privatised, while retaining their promotions and wages. It is clear that Transend-Malta runs Maltapost, but the government is still saying that they have only 35 per cent of the shares. These employees are being asked to go back to government, and lose about 11 years of service, and start almost from scratch.

On the other hand, when we ask about the company's finances, we are told that it is not our business. If the majority stakeholder in Maltapost is still the government, then it is surely our business. The finances of the government are the finances of the Maltese people. I hope we are still Maltese citizens. Our future also depends on the finances of Maltapost. So why all these closed doors to our questions?

We feel betrayed by the government also for other reasons. In the 1998 electoral campaign, we received, at home, a list of nice promises. These have all been systematically broken. Now when we ask what is happening, the government tells us that we work for the company and not vice-versa. First they come to knock on our doors and now all doors are closed for us. The government has the moral responsibility to provide us with a peaceful environment and peace of mind. But in the last 15 months, whenever we went to speak to MPs or when we protested, the government never reassured us. Either the government is sleeping or the government does not give a hoot of what we are saying.

We feel also very disappointed by the opposition party. First there was a lot of political propaganda, suggesting that the contract awarded to Transend was surrounded by mystery and scandal. Now the only stand the Labour Party has had the courage to take was that if in power it would reconsider the contract awarded to Transend. And what about the problems we have referred to the Labour MPs? The MLP is aware of the situation, but the only one that has made her voice heard in our defence, and for this we thank her, is MP Marie-Louise Coleiro. Is the MLP sleeping as well?