NEWS | Wednesday, 18 June 2008

Shipyards to shed more workers

Government sets to announce plans soon

Charlot Zahra

Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi said that Malta Shipyards Limited (MSL) will go to have through another restructuring phase and shed further from its current workforce of 1,700 in order to prepare for partial or total privatisation of the company once the transitional period for State Aid for MSL expires at the end of this year.
Asked during an interview with di-ve.com Editor Vanessa Macdonald, what will happen to the shipyards after the December 2008 date, and whether the order books were full after that date, when the subsidies run out, Gonzi warned: “The problem with the Drydocks is that with the present rate of efficiency and productivity, any order that comes in result in a loss to the Drydocks.”
The Prime Minister contended that that it was “not an issue of an order book; on the contrary, there are demands for work at the Drydocks which are unlimited.
“However, the Drydocks still needs to go through another phase of restructuring, and it needs to reduce the numbers it has there. We have these plans, we will publish these plans in the coming days,” Gonzi revealed.
Government’s plans for the Drydocks “will include as well the possibility for asking for interest in privatisation of parts of the Malta Drydocks or all of it. We’ll see; when the time comes, we’ll announce our plans,” he explained.
When Macdonald responded that Gonzi’s statement on the order books in January being full was “really optimistic” about the Drydocks’ future, or otherwise Government would be facing huge penalties from the EU, Gonzi retorted:
“No penalties, absolutely no penalties; the only problem that we have is that according to the restructuring programme that we signed with the European Commission, the Government cannot continue to underwrite losses that are registered by the Drydocks.
“Of course, at this point in time, we are discussing with the European Commission on ways and means of how we can identify solutions that will give us a way forward with respect to the Drydocks that will make it even more interesting for foreign investors,” Gonzi said.
The Prime Minister’s statements on a new early retirement scheme at the MSL were in stack contrast to the Malta Shipyards’ replies to the questions about the same issue a last week.
Asked by this newspaper about whether the MSL was thinking of offering early retirement schemes to its employees, the contents of these schemes, and the time-frame for their launch, a spokesperson for the shipyards said:
“Regarding your questions, the management of Malta Shipyards is not planning to offer early retirement schemes to any of its employees’.