Call for social pact gets employers' backing

The Malta Employers' Association expressed full backing for the prime minister's call for the formation of a social pact through which the social partners can pool their efforts to find optimal solutions to Malta's emerging challenges.

In its proposals to the national budget that were submitted to the Malta Council for Economic and Social Development, the MEA included this as one of its recommendations.

Other countries have also relied on social pacts to set standards to steer the economy on the right path and Malta should learn from the experience of these countries, it said in a statement yesterday.

"In Ireland, the social pact has been instrumental in pulling the economy out of recession in the late eighties. However, they had started from a situation of chronic unemployment, to the tune of 20 per cent, before the social pact came in force.

"In Slovenia, the government and the social partners signed a tripartite social agreement covering the period 2003-05.

"The general scope of this agreement is to set a general direction for economic and social development and policy through a balanced socio-economic development.

"In Malta, the social partners should not let the economic situation deteriorate further before it is realised that something similar needs to be done."