In the last few weeks the developments around the Malta shipyards took form in series of position statement by all of the main actors namely the Government, MLP, AD, GWU and Commisioners of the EU. Whilst, the need for privatisation is no longer a point of argument, the Government and GWU differ now on the source of inefficiency to be blamed for in the shipyards. All took its turn and the government insisted in putting the labourers at the center of the privatization process with the aim of attracting more potential investors. As the government made it clear that interested investors will only be official once the level of employees is reduced to 700, the GWU advised all members of its union to wait until the investors show up. They did so in the hope of a better retirement schemes at a later stage.

The end seemed at sight for the public until the EU intervention charging the government for having offered to cut off all debt in the operation after the firm gets privatized. The EU clearly stated that such action is seen as state aid to the private enterprise as the state was under the condition of stopping state aid by 2008. Their suggested course of action using a harsh economic model is that “liquidation is the natural and normal way of wrapping up commercial companies when these are making heavy losses”. This puts the government in a very awkward position with as on one hand he is fighting against liquidation for the employees welfare and on the other he is fighting to get the number of employees down to 700. Strange position for any government to meddle in as it almost shows the complexity of this role.

When hearing the word liquidation coming from an untouchable entity as it has been with regards to many industries in Malta one might get flashbacks. This flashback would lead them back to the story of Sea Malta’s privatisation where all its employees lost the benefits which would have been earned through the collective agreement. Then they would also bother to remember that it was the GWU who was to blame for all of the happenings after the only interested firm Grimaldi Group pulled out from the investment. Yet, the operation still started off for Grimaldi just they had a blank paper in employing their staff. Taking it back to the present time and the current privitisation the government and many state officials have already hinted at a possible recurrence of the Sea Malta story.

Where does this put the labourers?

Their representatives are struggling with the government to get a better package and have been told by them to hold on till the last minute to take the retirement scheme. Whilst, news now report that the EU will be meeting with the government to discuss the conditions of privatisation by mentioning the possibility of liquidisation of the shipyard. One can already picture what will happen if the EU puts more pressure. The employees will be drawn into the retirement scheme by fear of loosing their pension and maybe even a greater number than the stipulated amount might apply for this scheme. The government came out with clean hands, employees will find few job opportunities as there is no program of retraining specialized for them and the general workers union losses the game again.

Otherwise if the union keeps the act together, then the government has all the power to give in to the EU’s pressure and liquidize the operation making the GWU and EU look like they are the ones to blame. Whilst, the labourers would ones again be used as pawns and then be put by the side lines.

Either way GWU will come out beaten but the only ones who will really bear the burn is the labourers who will have no door to knock since after years of working in the same place with the same number of limited skills they turn unemployable. The economic burden will exist with or without liquidisation. With retirement schemes the worrying figures of unemployment for the group between 45 and 60 will aggravate even further.

Joseph Caruana

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