The General Workers’ Union, in collaboration with the International Training Centre of the International Labour Organisation, is holding a seminar on the theme Strengthening Social Dialogue in the Tourism Industry.

Opening the two-day seminar yesterday, GWU president Salvu Sammut spoke about the importance of social dialogue in modern industrial relations. He said the GWU had always been a pioneer in discussing the import-ance of social dialogue and had never taken a negative approach to this type of dialogue.

The tourism industry in Malta had been through a very difficult patch, said Mr Sammut, especially in 2006, which saw a fall in the number of tourists visiting the islands. As a result, he said, it had been a difficult year for the union, with the closure of several hotels and the transferring of business to make the hotel business more economically viable.

He pointed out that the GWU was one of the founding members of the Malta Council for Economic and Social Development and the only non-governmental organisation to propose the idea that the MCESD be restructured, with the government no longer having an active role.

Mr Sammut said the union was actively involved in discussions on social dialogue and said that the GWU never has and never will participate in social dialogue that is conditioned by impositions.

He said that immigrants and foreign workers should be protected at all times and should no longer be perceived as a source of cheap labour. This, he said, was not social dialogue but social dumping. These people should not be used and abused, especially in the tourism industry.

Social dialogue, Mr Sammut concluded, is the bread and butter of the economy and all stakeholders should do everything they can to ensure proper and fruitful social dialogue.

Representatives of various hotels who attended the seminar yesterday said that their respective hotels were going through a difficult patch and they all mentioned the fact that the hotel employs more part-timers than full-timers. At the same time, most of them said that they are very busy at the moment and that their hotels are practically fully-booked.