Malta Shipyards finances improve

Shipyard workers at Malta Shipyards are to get a performance bonus of Lm70 to Lm100 each next month after the company’s financial performance superseded budget targets during the first three months of the year.

According to the performance-related pay (PRP) scheme agreed by the government and the General Workers’ Union in the collective agreement of November 2003, workers are to receive a quarter of the additional profits achieved through a cut in labour costs, as turnover climbed beyond budget targets during the first quarter of the year. Workers will be sharing Lm157,087 ($447,571) using a weighting system that divides the workforce into management, supervision, administration and industrial grades.

The shipyards registered a turnover of Lm9.74 million ($27.75 million) between January and June this year, which is Lm1.6 million more than the forecast and more than double the turnover for the same period last year. The company’s gross profit had climbed from Lm2.25 million registered last year to Lm3 million, while net losses for the same period had gone down from Lm4.3 million in 2004 to Lm3.4 million this year, the shipyard said.

The losses were being slashed in line with the targets set each year since 2002 when the losses surpassed Lm20 million. By last year, losses were drastically reduced to Lm10 million following the restructuring programme undertaken by the company involving changes in work practices, redundancies and the relocation of workers.

The reduction of losses will continue until 2008, when it was planned that the losses would become negligible.