Shipyards’ agreement requires re-engagement of early retirement workers

Karl Schembri
General Workers’ Union Secretary General Tony Zarb has defended the re-engagement of shipyards workers just granted early retirement to continue works on the Fairmount Marine contract, citing the agreement reached with the government on the shipyards’ privatisation.
Asked about the ongoing practice of contracting out works to shipyard workers who have just been granted their early retirement, Zarb said the agreement reached earlier this month made it clear that the unfinished work on the Fairmount contract had to be completed at the earliest time possible.
“The government tied early retirement to a specific timeframe, so there was no other way but to grant early retirement to those who demand it and re-engage them to go on with the works,” Zarb said.
The union leader said it was unclear when the works on the Fairmount contract would be completed. He reiterated his claim made earlier this year that Malta Shipyards could lose up to €40 million because of the management’s costings of the work that was originally acclaimed as a major step at making the shipyards viable by the end of this year, when government subsidies will have to stop.
Minister Gatt has already admitted that the shipyards were landed in a disadvantageous position because of the contract but dismissed the €40 million figure as an exaggeration, blaming also low productivity as part of the problem.
A PricewaterhouseCoopers investigation into the contract is still ongoing as the shipyards management stands accused of glaring mismanagement and gross miscalculation of costs.
Yet shipyard sources insist that the costings as included in the contract were far off the mark after senior management shot down most of the costs originally drawn up in the assessment of the works.
The ongoing ship-conversion works on the two semi-submersible barges at the shipyards are in fact draining further the ailing Maltese company on the brink of liquidation.
Sources point towards a clause in the contract – kept under wraps by the government citing commercial confidentiality – that would give Fairmount the right to take over the management “in case of abandonment of contract”.
A spokesman for the Ministry for Infrastructure, Transport and Communications did not deny the existence of the clause but said the government would not make the contract public because of confidentiality clauses.
He said: “The company is taking appropriate measures to ensure that the project is delivered.”
He added that the practice of contracting out works to individuals was already existed to an extent before the early retirement schemes were launched.
“Management was utilising a mix of permanent Malta Shipyards employees, temporary employees as well as subcontractors on this project,” he said.
Sources pointed out that what is happening is similar to what happened at Public Broadcasting Services immediately after its workforce was cut down to one-third in the restructuring process launched by the same minister, Austin Gatt. PBS had ended up contracting out services at costlier rates to the same people it had just given early retirement.

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