Gibraltar’s representation at the Labour Party Conference continued yesterday evening with the Gibraltar Reception hosted by the Chief Minister Fabian Picardo and featuring a keynote speech by the UK Minister for Europe and the Overseas Territories Stephen Doughty MP.
Following on from the successful training programme implemented last year by the Gibraltar Port Authority and the Gibraltar Health Authority to deliver Maritime Rescue training, an additional training workshop has recently been held for GHA staff and Court Bailiffs.
The GSD says it is “not surprised” by the Government’s attempt to downplay the serious issues surrounding its employment policies, especially with regard to international contract workers in the GHA. Despite Government’s view, the GSD says it is actually “very aware” of the details surrounding contract work employees from them directly and from their lawyers and union representatives. The GSD says it understands the difficulties Unite the Union has had in any success with this Government, ever since Unite National Officer for the Health Service, Barrie Brown, came to Gibraltar in February 2012 to deal with the structured terms for non-consultant staff, nurses and ancillary staff and said: “At present there are no clear contractual terms and they need to be structured in a way that makes sense.”
Following the Saturday afternoon seizure of 570kg of Cannabis resin, by the GDP and RGP, the first police constable on board, Christian Durante, noted that as soon as they arrived at the scene they saw the vessel immediately turn and start accelerating.
He added, ‘as we got closer we saw what appeared to be one of the suspects throwing bales of drugs overboard, due to the rough weather conditions there was a slight collision, but once the vessel had slowed down a bit I managed to jump onboard and take control of the vessel.
The Gibraltar Port Authority has announced the recruitment of a new pilot, Captain Richard Whalley to its ranks, bringing up the current complement to seven.