Dalli proposes wage rise for civil servants

Finance Minister John Dalli has proposed a wage rise across the board for civil service employees during talks with unions over a new collective agreement, sources said.

The sources said the proposed increase was not significant and could not be compared to the hefty wage rise given in the last collective agreement.

Still, the offer would appear to be a U-turn by the government. Asked in a recent interview whether the new agreement would include a wage rise, Mr Dalli had said that after the last big adjustment, "the situation in the next agreement should remain stable".

The General Workers' Union, Union Haddiema Maghqudin and Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses officials now have until Monday to study the government's proposals.

Sources said that another meeting was expected to be held on Monday afternoon. "It is very possible that both sides will reach agreement early next week."

Trade unions agreed that important developments had taken place in yesterday's meeting.

UHM president Gejtu Tanti said: "The government has presented unions with concrete proposals including a fresh proposal on wages for civil service employees. We are now closer to an agreement. However, we still need to examine in detail what the government has offered us."

Asked whether the proposed salary rise was substantial, Mr Tanti said he was not in a position to elaborate: "However, I think it is important that the unions take into account the financial and economic situation of the country as well as the previous substantial increases in the last collective agreement."

Mr Tanti said the union was hoping that the Monday meeting would be conclusive.

GWU section secretary Josephine Attard Sultana said the union would be examining the government's proposals in detail.

"It will only be after this exercise that we will be able to tell whether the government proposals are acceptable to us. I hope there will be more developments on Monday."

Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses president Rudolph Cini said the union would be doing its homework over the weekend.

"I can say that we are closer to an agreement now than before yesterday's meeting. However, it is premature to comment on the government proposals.

"It was a very fruitful meeting and we appreciate that the government has come up with a financial proposal."

Mr Cini said one point the union wanted to clarify was that if there were an agreement on civil service employees' wages, it still wanted sectoral talks on a revision of conditions. "We have not yet reached agreement on this point but there seems to be light at the end of the tunnel."