Trouble is brewing at Malta Shipyards over disagreement on allowances for confined spaces and over the closure of the 'yard's clinic at night.

The collective agreement, signed only 30 days ago, had grouped the plethora of allowances that existed into four: working at heights, confined spaces, flexibility and multi skilling and an allowance for special skills.

The collective agreement lays down that workers get Lm1 an hour for working in confined spaces. Confined spaces are described as "working within a small area not allowing freedom of movement, large enough for an employee to bodily enter and perform work but has limited means of entry or exit and is not designed for continuous human occupancy, such as double bottoms".

The union's section secretary for metal and construction workers, Alfred Cassar, yesterday told a news conference the union and management were having discussions to define more clearly which areas would be considered as "confined spaces". A circular was meant to be issued by the human resources manager to inform 'yard workers about the talks.

However, chief executive Peter Moore issued a circular in the meantime saying the confined spaces allowance would not be paid to those working in any large tank that had restricted access.

Mr Cassar said the union sought advice from the International Metal Workers' Federation and other international sources, including ILO guidelines, which showed that the definition of confined spaces was as the union was saying and tanks having restricted access, irrespective of how big they were, were considered as confined spaces because of the inherent danger of working in them.

Mr Cassar said the union was surprised that Mr Moore issued such a circular when discussions were going on with the management about the matter.

He said he had written to Mr Moore informing him that unless the circular were withdrawn, the union would "use every means permissible by law".

A meeting with the management was scheduled for today but unless the circular were withdrawn, there was no point for the union to attend, Mr Cassar said.

Another thorny issue is a management decision to close the clinic at night unless there were at least 150 people on duty.

Mr Cassar said the union had cooperated with the government and management over the introduction of new work practices but now the management had to show goodwill too.

"We are insisting that there should be at least an ambulance driver on standby there, so that if an accident happens, someone could take those involved to hospital," he said.

As things stand, an ambulance that had been purposely bought for the 'yard would be available but no one would be there to drive it. The drydocks was not a normal industry but a place of work where danger loomed round every corner, Mr Cassar said.

He said the union suspected that the drydocks management was creating obstacles so that the 'yard would not do well and the chairman himself had written in the press that he doubted whether the drydocks could become viable. "If the chairman has such doubts, he should resign," Mr Cassar said. "If the executives each give up Lm1,000 of their hefty salaries, they could easily make up for the shortfall in revenue they always speak about," Mr Cassar said.

A shipyard spokesman said the union's interpretation of a confined space was too liberal. "The allowance for working in confined spaces is Lm1 an hour and if it is given the way allowances used to be paid in the past, we will have serious problems," the spokesman said.