Prime Minister accuses Zarb of selling access to government
GWU boss’s talk on favouring companies for government tenders takes on new dimension.
7 February 2013, 12:00am
Staff Reporter
Staff Reporter
2 min read
Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi has accused GWU secretary-general Tony Zarb of "selling access to government" when Labour was not even in power.
Gonzi, currently in Brussels negotiating Malta's financial allocation from the EU budget, was reacting to a recording broadcast by his party's media of Zarb speaking to a business operator in which he alludes to favouring companies whose employees are unionised, both for government tenders and in the union press.
The GWU said the recording is of Zarb speaking to a cleaning services contractor whose prices in government tenders meant his workers were underpaid, and that the GWU would put pressure on any government that gives tenders contractors whose employees are paid at below the national minimum wage.
In comments to the press in Brussels, Gonzi said he was "shocked" at Zarb's words as they were carried in the edited recording broadcast by PN organs.
Gonzi claimed that Zarb was "interfering" in a government's tendering process when Labour was not even in power yet, and said Opposition leader Joseph Muscat's own reaction to the recording stopped short of condemnation.
"Tony Zarb should resign. Instead of defending workers, he is taking a partisan approach," Gonzi said.
Earlier in the day, Muscat said that nobody had the right to speak for a new government. "Policies are made by this party, as approved in our manifesto," he said during a presentation of the PL candidates.
On its part, the GWU said the 'secret' recording was an edited conversation of an exchange that took place in mid-2012 between Zarb and a contractor, over precarious employment. The GWU said it had received reports of unfair treatment from employees of a prominent cleaning contractor, who was submitting offers for cleaning services to the government at prices showing his workers would be paid at rates below the national minimum wage.
"The GWU tried to negotiate for better working conditions for employees of the contractor but it was evident that the good will to improve the employee's working conditions was lacking on the part of the contractor. It was in this stated context that the GWU newspapers reported that the contractor's employees were being exploited," the GWU said in a statement.
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DR Gonzi has an opportunity to convince voters that he is better than the other side but he can only do this if he follows a certain path. That is to step back from censoring information and allow the people to hear the entire tape and judge what the truth really is. As it appears to me at the moment its seems that a taped conversation has been cleverly edited to try and discredit an individual, his organisation and those in some relation with him. An honest politician has nothing to hide from the public and instead of talking Gonzi should come clean. His government is in trouble because it had persisted in treating the people like PN subjects rather than citizens. IT has been caught a hundred times either hiding information or manipulating to trick the people. When Gonzi therefore comes clean on this one we shall know whether inside the man there is an honest politician or a dishonest one.
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Prime Minister, beware of what you say. The GWU is saying the truth. I challenge you that the employees' rights and work conditions have deteriorated.
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The PM is last person to speak. Those who have no sin shall cast the first stone.
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Issa qed naraw minn qed jiddefendi lill- kuntratturi, u x' tip ta kuntratturi dawn: dawk li ihaddmu lil haddiema bix-xoghol prekarju! Kieku dan kien xi kuntrattur ezemplari : kieku pacenzja imma lil dan mar jiddefendi Dr Gonzi? Jaqaw danw it-tip ta kuntratturi baqghu hbieb mieghu: is-serji kollha telqugh?
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Gonzi was 'shocked'. Dr Gonzi dan l-ahhar qed tiehu hafna xokkijiet. Fil-bidu tal-gimgha hadt wiehed ta Anglu Farrugia, issa iehor ta Zarb. Tat-tbabiss fix-xiri taz-zejt ta l-Enemalta donnok ma tantx hadt xokk. Jaqaw kont taf xi haga qabel? Nahseb li l-ikbar xokk ghadu gej. Stenna l-10 ta Marzu.
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Is this some form of distraction (dreamed up by the PN dirty tricks department)related to the oil procurement corruption scandal? Have they been warned in advance that something damaging may soon come out - so this is a form of damage limitation by way of teh pot calling the kettle black? Unless they can show that the PL was in on this, there's no way this is even remotely relevant, particularly since with their heavy editing, they haven't even managed to pin it on the GWU either!
