No agreement was reached this afternoon in a meeting held between the Broadcasting Authority and the UHM Voice of the Workers which has led to industrial action. The industrial action remains in place.
Chairperson Tanya Borg Cardona was absent from the meeting, which was mostly held after employees accused her of bullying tactics. The meeting was held in the presence of the Director of Employment and Industrial Relations.
During the one-hour meeting, the BA offered that the role of the chairperson is limited to a non-executive one while decisions taken by the board are scrutinised. The UHM pointed out that the BA chairperson’s role is already non-executive and there is no guarantee that the bullying will stop.
With regard to the change of offices – the BA will be moving out of Hamrun to make way for the Economy Ministry – the BA management promised that reports on health and safety issues are passed on the union before the transfer to Valletta. These reports have however not yet been commissioned.
The union said that there should have been consultation on the change of office and reports on health and safety issues before the decision was taken.
UHM said that files and documents belonging to the authority will remain in Hamrun for the chairperson to enjoy almost whole floor.
In a statement, the Nationalist Party spokesman for public broadcasting, Clyde Puli, said that BA employees are victims of Joseph Muscat's wrong choices. The workers had no other option but to resort to industrial action to pass on their message.
Earlier
The Union Haddiema Maghqudin “did not refuse any mediation talks and we have a meeting this afternoon with the (Broadcasting Authority) chairperson,” a union spokesperson told The Malta Independent today.
This morning Times of Malta reported that “yesterday the workers refused any mediation on their issues” following claims of abuse and bullying by Broadcasting Authority (BA) Chairperson Tanya Borg Cardona.
The situation at the BA escalated last Tuesday with the UHM ordering industrial action after alleged “bullying” tactics employed by Mrs Borg Cardona who, in one particular incident mentioned by the employees, insisted that “it’s either my way or the highway.”
The UHM this morning told this newsroom that this afternoon they “are going to meet with the BA chairperson and management in the presence of the the Director for Industrial and Employment Relations. Until a solution is reached the industrial action will still be in place.”
In an article published by The Malta Independent last Wednesday, BA workers who spoke to this newsroom said that the situation was “untenable” and insisted they “cannot take it anymore.”
Over the past weeks this newsroom made several attempts to get comments from Mrs Borg Cardona. When this week she was pressed to answer the questions sent to her on 23 February (with several reminders sent in between), Mrs Borg Cardona said she had been “advised not to answer us.”
BA staff has been ordered by UHM not to monitor current affairs programmes – one of the BA’s main duties to ensure balance – as well as to not answer phone calls or emails.
On Wednesday BA issued a statement denying all allegations of bullying by the chairperson. Mrs Borg Cardona said that, what the BA staff is saying is “untrue” and were “surely a result of a lack of communication between individuals within the authority.” It also said that the intentions and aims of the authority were always to place the strengthening of broadcasting before anything else, including the authority itself and the employees. This is what is happening and what will keep happening.”