From the Union Periti u Inginiera tas-Servizz Pubbliku

The Union Periti U Inginiera tas-Servizz Pubbliku (UPISP) was founded in 1990 and represents architects and civil engineers employed in the public services as well as mechanical and electrical engineers. In 2005, the UPISP was granted sole representation of the architectural and engineering grades in the Civil Service after official confirmation that it had the majority of membership of the architectural and engineering professionals employed in the Public Service.

The UPISP is gravely concerned that its continuous requests to the MPO to revise and improve its members’ working conditions are being constantly ignored. This government has over and over again insisted that it wants to encourage its top brains to give their professional maximum and yet, at the same time, it regards our efforts to negotiate, if not with outright contempt, with the most cynical disregard.

Why this should be so is beyond us. There are structures within the Civil Service that are wholly dependent for their existence on technical professionals like us. The Works Division, to mention an obvious case, is wholly dependent on the design and executionary capabilities of its in-house architects and engineers that over the years have built up an efficient, multifaceted structure of hundreds of people (works managers, skilled labourers, draughtspersons, accounts keepers, administrative staff) working to support them. The result has been a working machine that continues to churn out projects of national importance: civic centres, health centres, sports complexes, public gardens, pedestrian city centres, to mention just a few.

Yet when it comes to important aspects like remuneration and allowances, architects and engineers who, as executives for the government run the show most of the time, always seem to get the short end of the stick. It is very depressing to have to risk life and limb on construction sites and know that besides having no health or liability insurance whatsoever, manual and supervisory workers receive a danger allowance, while you do not. It is very demeaning to learn that people under your command, who wait for decisions that you are constantly expected to take, are taking more money home than you are. It is certainly unfair that allowances for using your personal car to go to work on site are still based on obsolete 1993 rates and are even calculated differently for architects in different government departments.

The government should live up to its own declarations in favour of a motivated Civil Service and negotiate the new collective agreement to bring it on a par with the established benchmarks. Instead of being stingy about a few hundred liri per annum for us to keep abreast of the latest trends in our profession, the government should admit once and for all that having us as in-house architects and engineers saves the national exchequer hundreds of thousands of liri that would otherwise go to private consultants to do the same job.

It was inevitable that a sense of despondency has lately overwhelmed our members, not least aggravated by the recent agreement between the government and the medical professionals. While we do not presume to get the same deal like doctors working at Mater Dei, we cannot accept that the government has created such a discriminating precedent and such a huge gap between them and us. We are not asking for that much after all: what we are asking for is enough to make studying and graduating from university and accepting huge personal and criminal responsibilities in our daily work, worth striving for.

Most of our members were brought up to believe in the values of study, of application, of doing a professional job and being acknowledged for it. They are the same values that still drive many people to send their children to school and university, sometimes at great financial and personal sacrifice. So, is it all a great whitewash after all?

Union Periti U Inginiera

tas-Servizz Pubbliku