The General Workers’ Union registered an industrial dispute with Maltapost over the company’s refusal to pay 30 minutes’ overtime to workers who sort the post.

The GWU pointed out that employees working in schedule three, who work the evening shift, have to work overtime to deliver post to the airport.

It held that the company is refusing to pay the first half hour of overtime to these workers because it believes they are not entitled to it according to the collective agreement.

However, the union added, the collective agreement states that the first 30 minutes of overtime is not paid only in those cases where the work is related to sorting.

It stated that these workers would have already finished the sorting and are therefore entitled to overtime.

In a letter to the management, section secretary Josephine Attard Sultana said that the employees are entitled to overtime for the first 30 minutes and they should be paid in arrears for the previous weeks when they worked overtime.