Mass demonstrations, or threats to take to the streets, do not produce jobs, Social Policy Minister Lawrence Gonzi said yesterday in an appeal to the General Workers Union.

"This type of approach tends to create problems rather than offer solutions. Unfortunately, it seems that the GWU is unable or unwilling to face reality," Dr Gonzi told The Sunday Times.

On Friday, the GWU launched a five-month campaign intended to put pressure on the government not to increase redundancies. It invited all other constituted bodies to join it.

Dr Gonzi said that the government was committed to do its utmost to help the unemployed find jobs.

Suffice it to say that for the past three years the Employment and Training Corporation had been allocated twice its previous budgets to implement its programmes.

New initiatives would also be taken during 2004 with the support of EU finance and expertise, the minister said.

The government, he added, was keeping a close eye on the number of registered unemployed. Their number had increased in the past few weeks, mainly because of the over 400 workers released from Malta Drydocks on early retirement, he said.

A simple comparison between the number of redundancies registered with the ETC over the past five years clearly indicated that the figures for 2003 are very much in line with those of the previous four years.

Statistics released on Friday by the ETC showed the number of unemployed in November standing at 8,277.

Dr Gonzi said the strategy to create jobs could not and should not be reduced to a simple public relations exercise as proposed by the GWU.

The GWU needed to convince everyone that it truly believed in social dialogue as the key to success. It needed to translate those words into action by taking an active part in the Malta Council for Economic and Social Development that was set up precisely for Malta to have a national forum, which brought all stakeholders together.

"The GWU can and should contribute to the forum together with all the other social partners to make Malta competitive. This is the way forward, if they truly believe in what they say," Dr Gonzi said.

UHM general secretary Gejtu Vella, who saw no reason for the GWU's decision to create a parallel forum to stimulate work, when this function was already being served through the new Social Pact, reflected the same views.

Mr Vella said the UHM still believed that the best formula to create work was through the MCESD, especially after the government agreed on the setting up of a Social Pact.

"Why do we have to start off some new forum when there is overall consensus on the creation of work?" he asked.

Mr Vella said the creation of work should not be solely the government's responsibility, but of all the social partners.

The UHM, he said, would also commission a report in a determined attempt to lure much-needed investment to Malta and create jobs.

GWU general secretary Tony Zarb said he was determined to see an effective campaign through.

"This campaign is going to be big, and we don't exclude anything," he told The Sunday Times.

Revealing that the GWU was to hold a demonstration during the last week of January, Mr Zarb said the union would also be writing to Prime Minister Eddie Fenech Adami and Opposition Leader Alfred Sant tomorrow.

It will be requesting an urgent meeting to discuss the unemployment problem, which the union believed was spiralling out of control.

The GWU, he added, was determined to avoid a repetition of the defunct and ineffective Front Nazzjonali ghall-Holqien tax-Xoghol (National Front for Job Creation), which was set up two years ago with the same intention.

According to Mr Zarb, the government and some of the unions, which refused to contribute to it, sabotaged that initiative.

Mr Zarb invited other constituted bodies to get on board and join the GWU in this "positive" campaign.

The GWU, he said, was not expecting government to absorb any workers shed, but the least it could do was try to create the right environment for investment.

"As things stand, the government is not even remotely interested in trying to find some kind of alternative employment for the unemployed.

"We have been in meetings with the government, where they wouldn't even be aware that some big company is facing lay-offs. Is this right?" he asked.