Petrol station industrial action suspended pending meeting with government

The petrol station industrial action which started on Tuesday has been suspended, pending the outcomes of a meeting with the government.

The GRTU will be meeting with Energy Minister Joe Mizzi tomorrow, but the union said that it could not exclude that the partial strike would resume if the discussions did not lead to an agreement.

Fuel stations across the island had been operating on reduced hours for the past three days, with the automated petrol payment and dispensing system not being available for customers to use after closing time. This restricted motorists to only being able to fill their tanks before 6pm.

The GRTU said earlier this week that it, together with fuel station operators, had decided to opt for limited industrial action since talks with the government had stalled over an issue connected to funding. Petrol stations claim they need help from the government or the European Union to undertake upgrades which are necessary so as to be in line with an EU directive by 2020.

But today it announced that it had decided to suspend the action since petrol station operators wanted to cause the least possible inconvenience to their customers, and also as a gesture of goodwill in light of tomorrow’s meeting.

GRTU CEO Abigail Mamo had told MaltaToday on Monday that the union had made its proposals, and that it hoped that an agreement could be reached, “one way or another”.