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Cleaning services contractor was recipient of government tenders
Mach Clean Ltd director Dominic Gafà was told by GWU boss Tony Zarb to allow employees to unionise.
8 February 2013, 12:00am
Staff Reporter
Staff Reporter
1 min read
GWU secretary-general Tony Zarb
The man singled out by the General Workers Union as having secretly recorded and then leaked an exchange he had with GWU secretary-general Tony Zarb, was the recipient of a government tender for cleaning services.
Dominic Gafà, 51, is a director of the company Mach Clean Ltd, which at some point was awarded a cleaning services tender by a government department, attracting the union's condemnation when it claimed that Gafà was employing workers at sub-par conditions.
Gafà declined to release a comment when contacted four times by this newspaper.
The GWU-owned media had previously attacked the choice of Mach Clean for the provision of the cleaning services tender, allegedly for employing workers on short contracts and at low wages.
In a meeting held some time in June 2012, Zarb met with Gafà along with another company representative as well as the former GWU deputy secretary-general Gejtu Mercieca, ostensibly acting as some sort of 'mediator' between the union and the company.
While the GWU is claiming that Zarb was telling Gafà that the union could use its influence to put pressure on governments when tenders go to private companies that employ people on so called 'precarious' conditions, the PN and Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi have claimed the recording shows Zarb attempting to sell access to a future Labour government.
Zarb has sued the PN for libel over the edited recording that was broadcast on its media.
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This particular contractor used to cater for Air Malta office cleaning and also aircraft cleaning. It was widely known that his staff were working in illegal conditions and management were fully aware of this. What is worse is that he kept winning Govt contracts one after the other. And then he has the cheek to cowardly record Tony Zarb to ditch him. This is a very obvious frameup.
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mr zarb you must resign. it doesn't matter what the discussion was about. the words you used goes against the interest of the workers. for the good of the workers, pl and gwu you have to resign.
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Another boomerang firing back towards PN. No commissions taken by Tony Zarb; what a mess Simon and Gonzi pair.
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ISSA DAQSHEKK ! This has nothing to do with politics, Resign Mr. Zarb the mask has fallen down, its quite clear you have your own agenda and not that of the workers, you will only be trusted by a bunch of PL fanatics. Hypocrite.
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Mhux dawk li ihaddmu in-nies huma kollha hatja li ma jghatux il-paga minima lill- haddiema taghhom! Jien inhaddem 50 ruh u l-ebda wahda /wiehed ma hu bil-paga minima! Dawn il-praspar ta employesrs li jiehdu it-tenders b'dawn il-kundizzjonijiet hija digrace! Min qed jiddefendi dawn il-prattici aktar shamefull! Ktibt hekk ghax fuq il-comments ta gazzetti prominenti bl-ingliz iccensurawni! Pajjiz tal-misthija niddefendu li min jaghsar lil min hu vulnerabli!
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This Government and political party has no shame. Besides dishing out multiple contracts to this Company offering inferior conditions, they then accept one of its Directors as a spy and doctor a recorded conversation to try and frame Toni Zarb, the GWU and the PL in a bad light. These are the tactics of Nazism. If the GonziPN clique had even the slightest scrap of decency they would all resign en bloc.
ALBERT FENECH
Qawra
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Isn't this MacClean the same company that these last couple of years has won the tenders to provide the cleaning for AIRMALTA. It would be very interesting to know who some of the ladies that form part of this company are, who their husbands are?. I believe this mr gafa was an ex AIRMALTA employee. That would do some interesting reading.
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Fenech Adami dahhal il-kuxjenza socjali fil-PN u Gonzi rega ramiha barra fid -dustbin! Inkredibli kif Gonzi jiddefendi kuntrattur li jasghar li haddiema iz-zghar u jattakka li Tony Zarb ghax jiddefendi lil din il- kategorija!
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Dominic Gafa was Mintoff's butler. After Mintoff's death he was featured in a local newspaper with memorabilia of the late Dom Mintoff. Shame on him for engaging employees with precarious conditions of work.
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I can't believe the PN are actually backing Gafa cleaners. They must be really desperate. Did anyone from the PN check on the conditions of work of the employees or check their pay. Is this the same company that won the tender to clean all Air Malta aircraft when this was outsourced?
