Unions insist on adherence to collective agreements

The Union Haddiema Maghqudin has written to hotels and food manufacturing companies to ensure employers continue to recognise the principle that collective agreements prevailed unless conditions it provided for were inferior to those stipulated at law.

The union said a case in point was that of public holidays falling over the weekend but not being added to a worker's annual vacation leave entitlement. It insists that where collective agreements stipulate otherwise what had been agreed to should be respected.

The UHM's declaration follows a similar one by the General Worker's Union last week.

The Malta Employers' Association, on the other hand, had said that employers should not be pressured by the GWU to ignore the changes in the law related to public holidays falling on weekends.

"The amendments to the law state clearly that public holidays falling on weekends shall not be added to the annual leave entitlement and that this legislation supersedes any existing contracts, including collective agreements," the MEA said. Therefore, employers are within their rights not to add public holidays falling on weekends to the vacation leave entitlements, it added.

The Chamber of Commerce and Enterprise yesterday said it accepts that the GWU must ensure the best possible conditions for its members but the union must also take the national interest into consideration as well as the interest of the unemployed and those whose employment is currently under threat.

The Chamber said it was convinced that if the GWU continued to pursue its current approach, the country will be led into higher unemployment and inferior working conditions for all workers including those employed in the public sector and those represented by the GWU itself.

The country will have no other alternative - everyone must realise that no country owes Malta a living and all parties are on the same boat. If the boat goes under, we shall all sink with no exception, the Chamber warned.

"The longer we deceive ourselves that we can postpone remedial action for our competitiveness position, the less flexibility we would have to solve the problems and the more painful these solutions would be," it added.

The Chamber said that in the current economic climate and in order to enhance country's competitive position, the it cannot condone the GWU's determined stand to ensure that public holidays falling on a weekend are added to the vacation leave of workers covered by a collective agreement.

During the talks between social-partners, it was specifically mentioned that should the measure be applicable solely to workers covered by a collective agreement its effect would be marginal, discriminatory and not immediate.

It was for this reason that the government needed to resort to a change in the appropriate law for the measure to have the desired and full effect on the country's economic and competitive predicament, the Chamber explained.

The GWU said it was negotiating with the management of ST Microelectronics over the impact of the new law on public holidays. It said there was an agreement between the union and the management which entitled company employees working on the so-called D shift to additional leave in order to make up for public holidays falling on weekends.

Sources close to both the GWU and the UHM said the advice the unions had was to "keep making pressure if they wished" but not to contest it before the Industrial Tribunal because in giving any award, decision or advice, the tribunal has to take into consideration the social policies of the government and other economic policies in the course of implementation and shall endeavour to ensure that its award, decision or advice is in furtherance of any such policies and plans.

Hence a tribunal would have to decide against the union's claims and the case would have to stop there.

Contacted for his opinion industrial relations consultant Ian Spiteri Bailey said that unions could, in principle, be right as a contract was a contract and this would have to be redressed when a new agreement is being negotiated.

"But if tested in an Industrial Tribunal, these would have to take cognisance of public policy and side with the principle as expressed in the budget," Dr Spiteri Bailey said.

Industrial relations consultant Andrew Borg Cardona said it is clear that the intention of the law is to give effect to the government's plans to reduce the number of days of vacation leave to which employees are entitled.

The wording of both the old and the new provisions of the law are such as to allow the argument to be made that all contracts of employment and collective agreements are to be interpreted in accordance with the new wording which specifies that all contracts and agreements are to be interpreted in accordance with the law.