The Union Haddiema Maghqudin accused the General Workers’ Union of not telling the truth about the overtime pay issue discussed in the social pact. Employers’ associations, the UHM said, had proposed that every first four hours of overtime each week, up to a maximum 100 hours a year, would be paid at normal rates, not at time and a half. Workers would lose e1,280 over three years with such a measure.

The UHM said the GWU knew well that the proposal had been shot down immediately because both the UHM and the CMTU, which with the GWU represented the workforce on the MCESD.

The UHM added that the overtime proposal did not surface at meetings held at the Osborne Hotel on 18 and 19 January, 2005, and that was because the proposal had already been shelved.