Updated 7:23pm with results of the vote

A parliamentary resolution to change the conditions of a long-term property deed for the General Workers' Union (GWU) headquarters in Valletta passed a vote in Parliament on Monday. 

The amendment will allow the GWU to lease part of the Workers’ Memorial Building for commercial use under certain conditions. 

Until Monday, the property could only be used for union activities. 

The vote passed along party lines with 41 Labour MPs voting in favour and 33 Nationalist MPs voting against.

As the vote passed, the stranger's gallery erupted in an enthusiastic round of applause, leading the Speaker of the House Anglu Farrugia to tell those in the gallery to leave the room.

Monday's result is likely to be seen as a victory for the union, which had not been hopeful of a positive outcome after PN MPs voted against the motion last month.

On November 20, Opposition MPs on the Parliamentary National Audit Office Accounts Committee voted against a government motion to amend the deed.

This was followed by another vote against the change during a plenary discussion on December 4.

The General Workers' Union had accused the PN of trying to undermine its work by resisting a change in the deed, claiming it was "a classic case of punitive overreach".

GWU general secretary Josef Bugeja said earlier on Monday that any changes to the conditions of a deed concerning state-owned land required the House’s approval.

"All this has come at a very significant price established by three independent architects, for the GWU to be able to sub-let a legally specified area of its South Street headquarters - a sub-basement, a basement, and limited portions of its ground floor ground - to commercial entities," he said.

Most of the premises, also legally delineated, will be for the exclusive use of members, 3,800 square meters of office space that is to be used by the GWU only for its trade union activities.

He explained that in 1957, the state’s emphyteutical deed specified that the building could only be used for the GWU’s trade union activities. In 1997, the House approved a change in the deed’s conditions, allowing the GWU to transfer its ground-floor and basement shopfronts, on condition it would be a 51% shareholder in the entities occupying that space.

In 2014, the GWU sublet two shopfronts to a restaurant and the Energy Corporation’s billing company ARMS, in the belief that the sublet was outside the purview of the deed’s conditions.

In 2017, the PN took GWU to court over the sub-leasing, insisting the site was government-owned, and in terms of a contract with the government's Property Division, no sub-lease could be made other than to entities in which the union had a majority stake. 

In May this year, the court declared that the GWU had breached its contractual obligations when it leased parts of its Valletta headquarters to ARMS Ltd and Sciacca Grill Ltd.

However, the court turned down the opposition’s request to annul the original emphyteutical concession in favour of the union, declaring that the request went beyond the parameters of the relative law under which the transfer was effected.

'GWU will pay €1.99 million'

Bugeja explained that the GWU had then asked the government to amend the contract at an established price, and according to established practice.

The GWU understands it owes the state for its past sublets.

"Since then, the government moved amendments to the 1957 deed, to allow the GWU to continue subletting the delineated areas of the Valletta building without the previous restriction.

"The GWU will pay €1.99 million to the state to be released of part of this condition, a figure arrived at by an independent architect’s valuation of the real estate’s value and past sublets.

He insisted it was government policy to support businesses, social partners and voluntary organisations to remain financially viable to continue safeguarding the rights of those they represent.

By allowing the GWU to sublet these unutilised basement portions to commercial entities, the State would be allowing the union to safeguard its operation and uphold its historic mission to protect workers’ rights.

'A classic case of punitive overreach'

“While the Opposition will be voting against this motion, the GWU fails to understand why the PN would want to undermine Malta’s largest trade union and take on the legacy of its former leader, whose desire to evict the GWU from its Valletta headquarters is a classic case of punitive overreach,” said Bugeja.

“Does the PN view this as a truly honourable cause? Does it see this political antagonism as a worthy quality of any party that aspires to be in power," Bugeja asked.

Bugeja said the government’s motion was a transparent move that puts to shame the precedents set by previous PN administrations, whose "arbitrary decisions" on policies benefited private interests exclusively.

“The NAO found grievous irregularities both in the 2009 transfer of the Qormi brewery land from Marsovin to Vassallo Builders - carried out without oversight from the House - and the 2013 Fekruna Bay land-swap, under-valued by €1.1 million,” Bugeja said.

“Nowhere did the GWU embark on any witch-hunt of former lands ministers.”

He added that just as it had submitted itself to the court’s decision on the 1957 emphyteutical deed, the union would respect the supreme decision of the House on this motion.

"Democracy should no longer be a parlour game for historic grudges, or to give vent to one’s prejudice towards workers’ unions,” Bugeja added.

“The GWU can only look to the future to strengthen its mission to further workers’ rights: for its adversaries, this is yet another steep incline on the political learning curve.”