Minister hails agreement on port workers

Investment Minister Austin Gatt yesterday described the agreement reached by the General Workers Union and Malta Freeport, over new working conditions for port workers, as the first that concretely addressed the problems of productivity and lack of efficiency in jobs that do not have set hours.

The agreement reached by the Freeport and the GWU, which represents licensed port workers, was a positive conclusion to weeks of negotiations, led by the Freeport chairman, Dr Gatt said.

However, the Ministry is still waiting for the Union Haddiema Maghqudin (UHM), which represented operators, clerks and the engineering department, to confirm its agreement with the last version of the proposed agreement.

In a separate statement, the UHM yesterday said it would resort to industrial action if the contract of privatisation was signed before the collective agreement, that the union was discussing with the Freeport had been concluded.

Through the new agreement with the GWU, the Freeport workers gave up the pay they previously had and agreed to get paid according to the number of containers they worked on. This means that, for the first time, payment would depend on productivity.

The workers also agreed on changes in the collective agreement aimed at ensuring that there would be an appropriate number of workers on site at the Freeport, to increase efficiency, and to the introduction of disciplinary measures and penalties.

The government offered the workers a financial package based on productivity levels. This included: a productivity bonus; a payment of Lm175 that covered the period from July 2003, when the previous agreement expired, till December this year; a Lm2 a week wage increase in 2005 and 2006; and an increase in the crane operator's allowance.

Dr Gatt said that the Freeport Workers' Committee and the workers themselves had shown that they understood the country's real needs and had shown maturity in weighing their personal needs against the need for a competitive economy.

He added that last Monday the government had accepted the UHM's request to provide a guarantee that privatisation would not result in any redundancies.

This type of guarantee had never been given before and the government could only agree to it because the buyer was willing to negotiate.

This was very unlikely to happen again if the collective agreement was not concluded before the privatisation of the Freeport, the ministry added.