# Shipyard workers asleep on the job



## rushie (Jul 5, 2005)

From the MaltaMedia - 

_Six Malta Shipyard employees were on Monday found guilty by the company’s disciplinary board of sleeping during working hours. Each worker will be suspended without pay for a varying number of days. As the workers returned to work on Monday, a five day period to appeal to the decision commenced. If the workers decide not to appeal to the decision, they will be suspended as from Friday. 

In turn, Monday also saw a meeting between the Malta Shipyard’s management and the General Workers Union (GWU), where the two parties discussed various clauses in the disciplinary code of the Shipyard workers’ collective agreement.

The suspension the workers sparked off controversy on Friday, with a number of Shipyard workers refusing to carry out their duties as a sign of solidarity with their colleagues. 

Minister for Investments, Industry and Information Technology Austin Gatt addressed the matter, urging the shipyard to improve its productivity in a bid to avoid serious financial problems. _ 

Sounds familiar...?

Rushie


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## Derek Roger (Feb 19, 2005)

Rushie :
Yes indeed and it sounds like the workers have their heads in the the sand > It is a pity for places to close but when it happens I am always amused by the antics of the unions who didnt believe it would happen ; and when it does ; blame everything under the sun other than their own negative longlasting contributions . And the workers are left dismayed that their Union Executives were not telling them the truth ???.

Derek


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## benjidog (Oct 27, 2005)

I wonder if those guys used to work on the car production lines at Longbridge in the 70s?

Brian


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## jim barnes (Dec 7, 2005)

Don't go there Brothers?


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## Derek Roger (Feb 19, 2005)

Brothers ??? Moscow calling or what ?


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## Keltic Star (Jan 21, 2006)

Sounds familiar, a few years back I fired a worker for sleeping on the job while on safety watch for a welder working in a confined space in the chain locker of a motor yacht. A Human Rights investigator ruled that I couldn't do that unless it was writen into the Company Policy Manual that sleeping during working hours was not permitted. A few choice words sent the investigator packing, haven't heard from him since!


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## Tmac1720 (Jun 24, 2005)

EXCUSE ME !!!!! (MAD) (MAD) Shipyard workers do NOT fall asleep on the job.......I always stay awake in respect for the young lady(==D) ..........now if you are referring to work........ah now that's a different matter(Jester)


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## billyboy (Jul 6, 2005)

in a similar vein. ther night foreman at a factory (nameless) went back to the furnace area at about 2am one morning and found to indian gentlemen asleep there (the furness section never ran at night) he told them "you are fired"...one of them replied "fired be f*****, we dont work here" we only sleep here. we work for another company. (true)


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## Bearsie (Nov 11, 2006)

This is all rather funny, Union or no Union.
But the real issue here is not that anyone slept, 3rd shift is a hard shift and I suspect that the percentage of sleepers world wide on this shift is about the same.
That being said it becomes clear that Malta shipyards is not losing millions cause a few workers took a nap...
That sounds more like a management problem on the top as far as their business model is concerned
Example: 100 workers on 3rd, 2 nap 1 hour a nite = 500 hr @ year = 20dollars x 500 = 10 000 dollars. So where does this account for the missing millions?
Especially considering the fact that the money making yard has the same 2 guys doing the same thing....


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## Derek Roger (Feb 19, 2005)

The rest of the yard would not work the next day in sympathy for their brothers who chose to sleep rather than work for their pay . 

It is symtomatic of the attitued of the unions .

While on one side we have warnings that productivity has to improve or risk closure ; the idiots decide to go slow and not work rather than be proactive and try and work to improve productivity .

One has to recognise a union is a "Business "in its self and depends on the contributions from its members . 

Simple math tells you they would rather have 10,000 loafers than say 5000 efficient ; motivated tradesmen .

How then can the union properly and honestly represent their membership ??

The usual notion is that if we increase productivity we will loose some jobs ?? wheras in fact an increase in productivity increase throughput and creates a healthy company .

The slow down attitude eventually close the facility and All jobs are lost .

Derek


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