Unresolved issues threaten lotto privatisation

Two trade unions yesterday threatened to derail the privatisation of the Lotto Department unless the government and the shortlisted Greek bidder agreed to resolve a number of issues.

TheUnion Haddiema Maghqudin and the Lotto Receivers' Union yesterday told the 192 lotto receivers who convened for an extraordinary general meeting that, as things stood, the privatisation of public lotto would threaten their livelihood.

Replying to a parliamentary question last week, Finance Minister John Dalli said the lotto privatisation process was in its final stages and the government was working to reach agreement with the lotto receivers and Maltco Consortium, a subsidiary of the Greek company Intralot.

The president of the Lotto Receivers' Union, Arthur Rossi, yesterday outlined two main bones of contention.

The first, he said, was Maltco's failure to recognise his union as the representative of lotto receivers.

Mr Rossi claimed the Greek operators did not believe in trade unions. This, he charged, was an insult to trade unions, especially now that Malta was joining the EU.

The second issue concerned the lotto booths, from where the receivers operated.

Both unions accused the government of failing to give a guarantee to the receivers that they would be able to continue operating from present points of sale when the new operator took over.

Besides, Mr Rossi said, if an insurance company refused to insure a particular booth, the new employers would not intervene to save the operator's job.

He said the Greek company had refused to accept a collective guarantee in case of hold-ups. This meant that the lotto receivers would have to fork out a staggering Lm1.5 million out of their own pocket.

Mr Rossi also said there was still disagreement over the issue of commission.

He claimed that Intralot had also set a sales target of Lm18,000 each, and in the case of anything short of that, the operator would be asked to close down.

He said a meeting between the unions, the Greek operators and the Privatisation Unit on May 22 had to be stopped abruptly after it became clear that there was no agreement.

Gejtu Vella, general secretary of the UHM, said his union was prepared to negotiate but nobody should expect trade unions to take matters lying down, especially as jobs were being threatened.

Turning to a national issue, Mr Vella said that two months after being re-elected, the government had still not appointed an official to deal with the number of pending collective agreements.

"If the government thinks it can come out with a bureaucratic process to delay such signings, then it can brace itself for industrial unrest," Mr Vella warned.