Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/598356
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 8 NOVEMBER 2015 8 News JURGEN BALZAN A recent survey carried out by the Forum of Trade Unions (FORUM) found that 33.8% of employees are unionised, a staggering 29,000 fewer than the membership fig- ures published by the Registrar of Trade Unions. Last month, MaltaToday pub- lished figures from an internal document showing that the Gen- eral Workers' Union overstated its membership by a similar fig- ure, leading the Registrar of Trade Unions to admit that the registrar never carried out a proper audit on union membership. In the registrar's latest report, showing trade union member- ship figures for 2012/13, the to- tal number of unionised workers stood at 91,576. However this does not match the results of the survey carried out by the Forum of Trade Unions. 33.8% of the total number of workers in full-time and part- time employment in December 2012 works out at 62,454, or 32% fewer than the figures published by the registrar. Barring a sharp drop in union membership over the past three years, the incongruity between the figures confirms fears that unions overstate their member- ship. The discrepancy could in fact be larger given that most unions include pensioners and retired workers in their membership numbers. According to the figures provid- ed in the latest registrar's report, the GWU's main rival, the Un- ion Haddiema Maghqudin, had 26,103 members in 2012/13. The third largest union is the Malta Union of Teachers, which ac- cording to the report has almost 8,000 members. Although unions do recruit new members, these are outnumbered by workers who leave for a vari- ety of reasons. Sources told Mal- taToday that the larger unions, which are usually at each other's throat in their bid to attract more members, inflate their numbers by keeping on their books work- ers who fail to pay membership fees, dormant members as well as members who do not officially re- sign from the union. In the latest registrar's report, the GWU claimed to have 46,831 members but a leaked document shows that its membership stood at just over 18,000 in 2014, a stag- gering 29,000 fewer than the fig- ures it submitted to the Registrar of Trade Unions. In reaction, the union's new secretary-general, Josef Bugeja reassured MaltaToday that the official statistics are neither in- flated nor outdated, adding that Enemalta's 'olive JAMES DEBONO ENEMALTA has applied again to regularise an illegally-built 80 sq.m substation and switch room (right) in Tal-Hadeddin in Mgarr, which lies in an agricultural area outside development zones. The Malta Environment and Plan- ning Authority had refused a similar request in 2010 but the substation, built before 2007, was never removed and slapped with an enforcement or- der. Enemalta's appeal is pending. The area around the substation is presently in a derelict state. MEPA's natural heritage advisory panel (NHAP) contends that regu- larisation is "unacceptable especially when the applicant is a parastatal or- ganisation, which should set a good example". Enemalta has now presented a landscaping scheme to minimise the visual impact of the unsightly struc- ture. But the NHAP has objected, in- sisting that the mitigation measures are insufficient to reduce the visual impact of the structure by surround- ing it with olive trees. Survey confirms fears of unions' inflated Study shows over 33% of workforce is unionised: at 62,454 this is far less than the 91,576 workers registered with the unions' registrar Josef Vella, secretary general of the UHM, and (right), his GWU counterpart, Josef Bugeja