The General Workers’ Union said it has signed three ground-breaking memorandum of understanding with social and corporate partners that underlined the union’s commitment to financial sustainability and social inclusion. 

In the second day of its international conference marking 80 years since its founding, the GWU signed agreements with Maltese bank APS, eM@ney and the Allied Rainbow Communities organisation. 

The GWU is now the first trade union to offer a voluntary pension scheme, both as an individual and collective scheme for it’s members, the GWU said in a statement Friday 

“This agreement allows the GWU to offer it’s members a good packing. In the next days, together with pensions consultant David Spiteri Gingell, we are formulating a number of educational tools that will better explain the benefits of this scheme,” said GWU Secretary General Josef Bugeja.  

“This truly shows the heart of our union – defending the dignity and lifelong social protection of workers.” 

At the conference, both pensions expert David Spiteri Gingell and APS head of investment distribution Kenneth Genovese gave detailed explanations of the importance of voluntary pension schemes and financial education to the public. 

A second agreement was signed with the company eM@ney plc, for the GWU to provide an innovative, digital Master Debit Card to it’s members to benefit from various retail advantages. “We are giving a better value to the annual membership fee paid by our members with this innovative, convenient and secure service that truly answers to the demands of our modern world,” said GWU Deputy Secretary General Kevin Camilleri. 

“We are the first union to provide this service to our members, which will also cultivate trust in a strong and large Fintech institution,” Camilleri said. 

The card, as explained by eM@oney head of business development Bruno Soutinho, will facilitate the creation of bank accounts for Maltese and foreign workers. 

The third agreement was signed with the Allied Rainbow Communities organisation, to further the promotion of LGBTIQ+ rights across the workplace. 

“We are signing this agreement because we are both organisations who embrace the principles of dignity and inclusion, and because we are against all types of discrimination,” said Josef Bugeja, who signed the memorandum with ARC president Maria Azzopardi. In comments to the GWU audience, Azzopardi said it was her mission that all the colours of the rainbow – and beyond – reach more communities for the promotion of equal opportunity to LGBTIQ+ members and their allies. 

A new global dimension of work 

The second day of conferences at the GWU opened with an address from GWU Deputy Secretary General Kevin Camilleri, who lauded the union’s mission as a catalyst towards improved working conditions. “These 80 years of history, of Malta’s largest and best union, are 80 years that shaped workers as we know it.” 

Camilleri emphasised the fundamental right for social protection, with the GWU’s mission comprising every worker’s access to essential healthcare, fair pay and merited retirement. “It means we must also protect vulnerable and marginalised communities from economic hardship.” 

Camilleri added that the GWU’s role in promoting sustainability on the workplace and beyond also required the adoption of ecological practices, supporting renewable energy, and promoting policies that protect the environment for future generations. “Never like today, have workers needed a union like the GWU to guarantee that the rights they have are not lost and to prepare them for a future with new challenges.” 

80-year journey for workers’ rights 

Two panel discussions focused on the main themes of the GWU conference: the safeguarding of social protection and workers’ dignity and rights, and the critical role of innovation and sustainable investment on the workplace, which also touched upon the crucial importance of education, skilling, and youth development. 

In his closing address, GWU Secretary General Josef Bugeja toasted the union’s historic role at the forefront of workers’ right, social justice and economic prosperity. 

“This journey that started 80 years ago, on the 5th October 1943, has truly shown the GWU as one of the protagonists in Malta’s socio-economic development,” Bugeja said, adding that the union was looking to the future with a determination to safeguard human dignity, social protection, innovation and sustainability. “The GWU is today as relevant as it ever was: we celebrate 80 years since our founding, and look forward to yet more celebrations in the future.”