UHM hails social pact concept

The Union Haddiema Maghqudin welcomed the government's reference to having a social pact to create employment, saying it has been striving for it for the past months during meetings of the Malta Council for Economic and Social development.

Union secretary general Gejtu Vella said the union's council would look at the budget in detail on Thursday but the initial reactions were that several of the UHM's arguments had been taken on board.

The deferring of the decision on the welfare reform was another of the UHM's proposals, Mr Vella said. The union wanted more consultation on the privatisation of the Freeport and Public Lotto departments, he added.

Mr Vella said the union noted with satisfaction that the government was giving compensation to make good for any increases that would result with the VAT increase and welcomed the funds for health, roads, tourism and environment, where representatives from the MCESD would be involved to see that funds were being spent well.