UHM, Maltapost on collision course

The straight talk of Maltapost chairman Frank Dimech has led to a doubling in the number of employees opting to return to public sector employment but 90 more have to leave by today's deadline for the company to be viable.

However, his comment that the company's workforce has to be reduced if the target of 160 do not return to the public sector has infuriated the Union Haddiema Maghqudin.

The union, already in dispute with the company over a downgrading warning to employees, is now threatening to take all the necessary action to safeguard jobs.

Section secretary Joe Morana said the union strongly objected to Mr Dimech's comment advising employees "to seriously consider the option of returning to government employment because the job of those who did not have this opportunity could be jeopardised".

"We feel this comment is unethical and constitutes moral blackmail. Through such a comment the company is shifting its burden on the employees' shoulders, an unfair move which could prejudice their career," Mr Morana said when contacted.

He said that since Maltapost was giving the collective agreement its own interpretation, the union would not cooperate with the company's much-needed restructuring and would issue any directives it deemed fit.

"There will be no reforms without job guarantees and the assurance that there will be no demotions," he said.

"This situation negatively affects our industrial relations with the company and seriously prejudices any future privatisation projects the government may have. This experience has left us with a bitter taste," he added.

Mr Morana said he had already written to Mr Dimech over the comments he made in the interview to The Times.

When contacted, Mr Dimech shrugged off the accusation of moral blackmail and insisted that his comments were simply a "statement of fact".

"There is no moral coercion on anyone. But, I repeat, those who don't take the option to return to the government might jeopardise the employment of those who don't have such an option," he said.

"People need to start believing in the realities of life and understand that we cannot continue living in unsustainable situations," he said.

Maltapost and UHM have been at loggerheads since last October when the company deemed that it had a surplus of 266 workers.

In an attempt to diffuse the situation the government had intervened and committed itself to taking on 160 ex-government employees. About 330 have been offered the chance to return to the public sector but until yesterday just 70 had taken up the option.

Meanwhile, the UHM on Wednesday registered an industrial dispute with Maltapost and called on the director of labour and industrial relations to hold a conciliation meeting with urgency.

Replying to the UHM's accusations, Maltapost said it would like to clarify that in keeping with its promises and an agreement with UHM, it would provide all information to its employees so that they would be in a position to decide for themselves, on the facts, whether to revert back to government employment.

Maltapost also referred to the Maltapost chairman's remark that there would be a potential demotion in grades or lay-offs if 160 employees do not apply to revert to government. It said it would like to clarify that this was the worst scenario given the present circumstances but the possibility of this happening was still a reality. So much so, that the recently signed collective agreement provided for this eventuality, Maltapost added.

Maltapost reiterated that it was after all the responsibility of the board of directors and the management to safeguard the interest of the shareholders, customers and the general public, by ensuring that the company was managed efficiently.

This could be achieved through a proper restructuring process that had been agreed upon with the UHM in the latest collective agreement, as a result of which 160 employees have to be reduced.

Maltapost said it would also like to clarify that in agreement with the UHM, the decision that 160 employees would revert back to government was a solution that had been achieved through a concerted effort between the company, the union and the government as the best solution to the current circumstances of excess employees at Maltapost.