People who say they respect workers and their dignity should not act arrogantly with them, said General Workers Union secretary-general Tony Zarb yesterday during a seminar organised by GWU Youths, Graffitti and the Reggie Miller Foundation on the worker’s dignity.

Mr Zarb was referring to recent statements by Investment, Industry and Information Technology Minister Austin Gatt.

“The GWU will not continue to accept Minister Gatt’s arrogant attitude towards the union and its members,” he said. “We do not believe in threats and arrogance.”

Whenever Dr Gatt attacks the union in an arrogant manner, he is making a direct attack on the dignity of workers, he added.

Mr Zarb said he was referring to a series of “arrogant declarations” by Dr Gatt when he threatened to privatise departments within Air Malta, where the union’s members were employed, unless they accepted the government’s proposals on working conditions.

The secretary-general pointed out that Minister Gatt made this declaration when the union did not then have the government’s proposals in hand.

Mr Zarb also referred to several promises that, he said, were never kept and added that the workers did not have the improved work conditions they were promised.

He also said that foreigners were employed at a lower cost and without stipulated working conditions, to the detriment of Maltese workers. The union was insisting that all foreign workers should be given the same working conditions as the Maltese, to reduce unfair competition and ensure that their dignity was respected to the full, he added.

Part-time workers were another section of exploited workers, Mr Zarb said.