Union Haddiema Maghqudin secretary general Josef Vella said that the UHM is defending the rights of workers, contrary to what the General Workers’ Union has portrayed in an article published in its newspaper Orizzont, yesterday.

The union’s newspaper claimed that as a result of the UHM’s ‘escalated’ directives issued this week to European Union Programme Agency (EUPA) (the UHM said that it escalated the directives since no agreement had been reached tied to the expired 2011 collective agreement), funds normally allocated towards the education sector were at risk.

A UHM representative, whose role is that of handling this particular sector, explained to this newspaper that the union has been struggling to reach an agreement with the management of EUPA but to no avail.

“We have been trying to avoid issuing directives, or escalating them for that matter, but we were left with no choice but to do so.

“The UHM presented its first request to management to review the collective agreement back in 2011 when the agreement had expired. In 2012, the UHM started off discussions with EUPA’s management.

“When the document was finalised and the proposals submitted to management, no agreement was reached on the new conditions of workers.

“On 30 June 2014, the UHM registered an industrial dispute. A meeting with the Director of Employment was held and the UHM gave him a week to get back to it with a concrete reply. The UHM always reserved the right that if the need arose, the union would escalate the directives,” the UHM representative said.

On Wednesday the new directives were issued. On the same day, the union had met up with the Principle Permanent Secretary and representatives from the Public Administration Collective Bargaining Unit (PACBU).

Mr Vella told this newspaper that it was unsatisfied with the proposals presented to it for EUPA’s workers, describing the proposals as being “inferior” to the conditions listed in the last collective agreement.

A total 20 individuals work for EUPA.

 

 

UHM statement issued yesterday

The Union Haddiema Maghqudin has ‘escalated’ its directives due to the fact that an agreement had not be reached regarding the collective agreement of European Union Programme Agency (EUPA) employees.

The UHM is currently seeking a revision of the workers’ conditions.