Union lifts directives after suspensions are withdrawn
Maltapost said yesterday that following a conciliation meeting at the office of the Director of Labour an agreement was reached with the General Workers' Union and all actions which had led to a disruption of the service in a number of branches...
Maltapost said yesterday that following a conciliation meeting at the office of the Director of Labour an agreement was reached with the General Workers' Union and all actions which had led to a disruption of the service in a number of branches yesterday morning were lifted.
All counter services will consequently be back to normal with effect from this morning.
The dispute arose after the GWU claimed that Maltapost management had not reacted to its call since June 2003 for the introduction of better safety and security measures for counter staff.
Meanwhile, the Union Haddiema Maghqudin yesterday took exception to the fact that another union was proposing what it called "illegal directives" to Maltapost employees. Although not specifically mentioning it by name, the UHM was clearly referring to the GWU.
The UHM argued that such action was to be condemned in view of the fact that progress had been achieved in negotiations with the management over the retail section at Maltapost.
A time and motion study is being carried out to find out the nature of the difficulties members of the retail section are facing after additional duties were passed on to the section, the UHM said.
The UHM also said it had reached an agreement with Maltapost on health and personal security measures.
When contacted, Josephine Attard Sultana, secretary of the GWU's public service employees section, said that notwithstanding the fact that the UHM represents the majority of the workers at Maltapost the GWU could still look after the interests of its members.
In fact, the GWU had issued a directive to the retail section, involving about 30 workers, not to handle any payment of bills issued by public entities.
"About 28 of the 30 workers, including members of the UHM, followed the directive but the management suspended these workers," she said.
The Director of Labour yesterday called a meeting for the parties involved in the dispute during which the management withdrew the suspensions and the GWU halted the directive.