Matthew Vella
The government is blaming the international financial crisis for its decision to remove the post of worker-director from the Bank of Valletta’s board of directors, and replace the position with another government appointee.
Employees and unions expressed their dismay at the decision by the bank’s main shareholder to replace their elected representative with another government appointee.
A spokesperson for the finance ministry yesterday said the global financial crisis required a government representative on the board to safeguard “the overarching needs of the bank”.
With BOV still reeling from a 60% cut in profits due to the financial crisis, the first casualty of the downturn is the employees’ elected director on the bank’s board.
The prime minister yesterday did not comment when asked by MaltaToday how this decision tallied with two of his electoral pledges: namely the strengthening of workers’ rights and issuing public calls for applications for government appointments.
Both pledges were inserted in the ‘Together everything is possible’ electoral programme for March 2008.
Indeed, a spokesperson for the finance ministry yesterday said the government had “long felt” the need to strengthen its representation in BOV, and that this had been “accentuated” by the financial crisis.
“The presence of a further government representative is essential at a time where more than ever, the overarching needs of the bank, which is after all of a national interest, rather than specific needs have to be taken into consideration,” the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson said workers will still have another worker on the board of directors.
However, BOV employees told this newspaper they only get to vote for their choice of director at the bank’s AGM since they collectively own 4 million shares in the bank.
“There is no guarantee that our choice of director as employees will always be elected to the board since they require since 7 million to be elected. The worker-director is elected internally by the workers.”
The General Workers Union (GWU) also said the second ‘worker-director’ had been elected on the board in an election and this post was not automatic.
Both the Professional and Services Employees Union (PSEU) and the GWU have opposed the decision.
The PSEU appealed to the finance ministry to revise the decision:
“This presence has always been beneficial to the interests of the bank’s shareholders and its employees.”
The GWU said replacing the worker-director would “substantially weaken workers’ say in decision.”
The GWU also said the concept of worker-director had been successful in ensuring workers’ interests are voiced at board level:
“In the present financial crisis which is reflecting on BOV’s profits, the contribution of workers to decision-making is essential and more valid than ever before.”
The PSEU said the system had so far been beneficial and should not be substituted by “some current market experiment”.
Every year, BOV workers appoint a director to represent them at board level to ensure they have a say in the implementation of proposed policies or amendments.
The GWU said it had been informed of the government’s decision by sources close to the bank but it was never directly informed or consulted by the government.
Both the GWU and PSEU said this was an unwise decision to take in light of the present global financial crisis and instability in the sector.

mvella@mediatoday.com.mt

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