Union at loggerheads with Freeport over health and safety

The Malta Dockers' Union has given the Freeport until the middle of next month to improve health and safety conditions, failing which it will act to safeguard their members, union president Joe Saliba said yesterday.

The union has written to the Freeport about the matter and copied the Director of Labour, who, in turn, wrote to the Freeport.

Sources close to the company said the Freeport replied to the Director of Labour. However, Mr Saliba said the union is not aware of any developments.

The union has complained about the vehicles used by port workers inside the Freeport which, it says, emits exhaust fumes into the cabin. Another complaint relates to the mobile shelters meant as rest rooms but which are in a very bad state. As talks about port reform are in their final stages, the port workers, the Freeport and the Malta Maritime Authority are locked in a three-pronged wrangle.

The Freeport wants to engage more workers to be able to cope with an increased work load. The port workers recognise the need for more workers but blame the Freeport for not providing enough equipment. And the MMA is unwilling to allow any manoeuvres outside the parameters of the port reform that has yet to be concluded.

Mr Saliba said workers were complaining that there were not enough trucks and rubber tyre gantry cranes available to cope with the work load.

A survey of port workers over a 15-day period has shown that they were idle for three-and-a-half hours every eight hours because of a shortage of equipment or lack of coordination from the port workers' foremen's office.

"We get paid for what we do and it's not in our interest to be idle for three and a half hours. Time is money for us," Mr Saliba said.

Mr Saliba recognises that there is a shortage of workers but this was not their fault because they were willing to indicate a number of workers who could be recruited.

Freeport sources said the volume of work was increasing and the growth has been anticipated over the past two years. The Freeport had been speaking to the MMA about the need to recruit more workers.

The Freeport estimates it needs another 84 port workers in addition to the 290 who regularly work there.

"There are 18 quay cranes and we can only operate 12 or 13 at the most," the Freeport sources said.

"The MMA or the government must decide because this is costing us a lot of money. We reckon we lost over Lm100,000 only last week because of delays or ships that have not yet called to offload or load containers," the sources added.

"Ten ships are waiting to start operations outside the port and seven others were delayed by a total of 116 hours over the past five days," the sources said.

Government sources said the port reform was a complex one but it was now nearly finalised.

"One tends to get this kind of pressure because different interest groups would want different things out of the same situation," the government sources added.

"We are at the end of a long outstanding process. Any changes should be part of the port reform to ensure no piecemeal issues".