The union lifted the directives after a basis for an agreement was found during a marathon meeting at the Investments

and Information Technology Ministry on Monday. The union agreed to withdraw the directives in order to allow fruitful talks between all parties to continue without industrial action.

In a statement, the ministry said that initially, the company had identified 20 former dockyard employees to take up employment with it. However, nine of them turned up with medical certificates showing that they were not fit to take up the post.

Following Monday’s meeting, it was agreed that only 10 people were required and the government had began an exercise to recruit people who were redeployed from other government entities including the Public Broadcasting Services Limited, the Malta Development Corporation, the Institute for the Promotion of Small and Medium Sized Enterprise (IPSE) and the Malta External Trade Corporation. The latter three were merged to form the Malta Enterprise. An effort is being made to employ these people by Monday.

As a result of this agreement, Maltapost employees are now answering the phones and using computers and are collecting, processing and distributing all post the company receives.