Board-Level Employees Representation

At present, in Malta there are 14 board-level employee representatives. Six of these, accompanied by Saviour Rizzo who is the Acting Director of the Workers’ Participation Development Centre (WPDC) at the University of Malta, are attending a seminar in Athens, Greece between 26th and 28th February 2004. This seminar is the first activity of a Transnational Information and Exchange Study Project sponsored by the European Commission and coordinated by the University of Limerick in Ireland. This project involves seven EU member states – Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland and the Netherlands – and two acceding countries which are Hungary and Malta. This seminar in Greece is the first in a series of seminars which will be held in each of the countries participating in this project. Malta is participating in this project through the Workers’ Participation Development Centre (WPDC) of the University of Malta.

The objective of this project is to promote transnational cooperation between board level representatives within the EU Member states and acceding countries. This cooperation will ultimately lead to the development of a programme of education and training and exchange of ideas and information on economic and social responsibilities of enterprise directors.

In recent years there has been a new upsurge of worker participatory initiatives promoted and supported by the social policy acquis of the European Union. The declared intentions of removing the ‘us-them’ attitude and maintaining industrial peace are now also accompanied by attempts to allow workers to involve themselves in the running of their organisations and thus contribute more fully and in a more committed way, to their performance and competitiveness.

The six board level employees representatives who are participating in this first seminar being held in Athens are:
Arpa Ray, Worker Director at Air Malta
Borg Joe, Representative of non-academic workers in the University Council
Debono  Alfred, Worker Director Enemalta
Camilleri John, Worker Director Air Supplies
Micallef A. Elizabeth, Worker Director MITTS
Mifsud Richard, Worker Director Union Press