Employees of the transport regulator are up in arms after having been left in limbo over a new collective agreement for over two years. This “unacceptable delay” which is affecting over 400 Transport Malta employees has prompted UHM Voice of the Workers to issue an ultimatum, beyond which it will be resorting to industrial action.

Talks on this collective agreement have been dragging on since 2020, the year in which the old collective agreement had expired. UHM Transport Section Manager Kenneth Abela told Voice of the Workers Weekly that it was only recently that Transport Malta presented its counter proposals.

Though negotiations started before the expiration of the agreement, the process stalled in the wake of the March 2022 general election whereby the talks were halted, and subsequently due to a raft of changes at the helm of the authority which had three CEO’s in little more than a year. In June 2022, former Armed Forces Brigadier Jeffrey Curmi was appointed CEO in place of Joseph Bugeja, but his tenure lasted less than 12 months after being replaced by Jonathan Borg who official took over at the start of this month.

“Negotiations were suspended by Transport Malta first due to the general election and subsequently each time there was a new CEO on the grounds that the incoming chief wanted to take stock of the situation before forging ahead,” the transport manager remarked.

In reality, however these changes did not affect government’s team on the negotiation table – the Industrial Relations Unit – and Transport Malta’s human resources department as they were the same through the process. Consequently, there was no justification at all to delay the process by more than two years.

“At this stage, UHM has informed Transport Malta that unless the deadlock is broken by May 10, we will have no other option than resort to industrial action,” Mr Abela added.

Asked what measures could be in the pipeline, he said that all option were being considered.

“Ultimately, the ball in Transport Malta’s Court as it is up to them to come up with a good counterproposal,” he remarked.

He pointed out that the delay is costing dear to the affected employees in the wake of the record cost of living increase of the last two years which has significantly eroded the workers’ spending power.  So far, the offer tabled by Transport Malta pales in comparison with the old collective agreement, as the financial package is way below what had been offered in the past.