At the International Labour Organisation in Geneva yesterday, GWU general secretary Tony Zarb accused the government of interfering in the process of collective bargaining and obstructing the freedom of collective negotiations.

Proof of this, he said, lay in the fact that the Maltese government was still ignoring, and therefore violating, the decision of the ILO committee on freedom of association.

His reference, Mr Zarb said, was to Case 2447. A year ago, he recalled, the committee on freedom association upheld the GWU’s complaint and requested the Maltese government to amend the National and Public Holidays Act so as to ensure that this provision did not render null and void any provisions in existing collective agreements and also not to preclude voluntary negotiations in the future over this same issue.

“In spite of the ILO’s decision the situation has remained unchanged and our collective bargaining process will remain hindered as long as the Maltese government continues to refuse to alter its decision and bring back the law to where it was in 2004.

“Therefore we are once again calling upon the International Labour Organisation to further press the Maltese government to bring it to adhere to the decision taken by the committee on freedom of association and to let free collective bargaining take its course.”

Mr Zarb had another point to make: “In my country, particularly since these last few years,” he said, “we have seen a sharp rise in workplace exploitation so much so that today many part-time workers are working under miserable conditions while those in full time employment are being subjected to accept a reduction in the conditions that they have managed to achieve with much sacrifices along the years.”

The GWU had also for long been calling for the necessary steps to be taken and implemented so as to make the labour market more accessible to enable the largest possible number of women to enter into full-time employment.

They had been insisting for such measures as they knew from statistics that more women were opting to part-time or home working as a result of their inability to reconcile the work-family balance. “It therefore comes as no surprise that such employment is offered with very low pay as generally this category of workers is not organised or unionised,” he said.