Minister to discuss compulsory insurance for workers

Social Solidarity Minister Dolores Cristina said yesterday she would take up a call by Labour MP Jose' Herrera to discuss compulsory insurance for workers with the Malta Insurance Association.

The minister was concluding the second reading debate in parliament on a bill to amend the Social Security Act. One of the provisions of the bill provides that a worker injured at the place of work would lose injury benefit if it was found that he was negligent and had not taken safety precautions. Similar measures would be taken against negligent employers.

Mrs Cristina said this was not a measure aimed at saving money for the government, but to ensure that all assumed their responsibility for health and safety.

Both Opposition leader Alfred Sant on Monday and Dr Herrera on Tuesday argued that there should be compulsory insurance for workers.

Dr Herrera had pointed out that an Employers Liability Compulsory Insurance Act was passed by the House in 1974, amended in 1983, but never brought into force. The reasons, Mrs Cristina said, were obvious, and she would take up Dr Herrera's suggestion for her to discuss the matter with the insurance association.

Mrs Cristina also reacted to criticism of services at St Vincent de Paul Home, pointing out that the growing waiting list of people who wished to stay at the home was evidence of how conditions had improved.

She insisted that deductions from the pension entitlements of residents at the home were socially just, as explained in detail on Tuesday by Parliamentary Secretary Helen D'Amato.

Turning to sickness and injury benefits, Mrs Cristina said a group within her ministry was assessing abuses and would make proposals so that Malta could have something similar to the UK's law against benefit fraud.

She observed that the self-employed made 17.2 per cent of the sickness benefit claims but absorbed 40 per cent of spending on sick leave. While class one employees had an average of 12.5 days sick leave, the self-employed claimed almost 30 days and these coincided with holiday time or periods when business was slow.

Mrs Cristina said her ministry had also introduced a new procedure for the consideration of claims for invalidity pensions.

Concluding, Mrs Cristina said the White Paper on pensions reform would be published in the coming weeks, the aim being to ensure the sustainability of the system.

In his speech earlier, Dr Herrera said it was ironic that there was nothing in Maltese law to provide for compensation when someone was injured while on duty. Back in the early 1970s a bill for this purpose was debated in parliament and enacted but never brought into force.

This was worrying. Workers, he said, were sometimes awarded compensation by the courts, but it should be compulsory for employers to be insured.

The minister concerned should discuss the issue with the Association of Insurance Agents, which appeared to be concerned that there could be major claims which its members could not afford.

Dr Herrera said that traditionally when people were injured at the place of work they obtained benefits from the government and following court proceedings they received compensation from their employer. The injury benefits they would have obtained from the government were not reduced from this sum.

Would the employer now have to pay back the government the amount the employee would have been given?

Dr Herrera expressed concern over further deductions from the income of persons residing in old people's homes, saying such deductions could make these people feel destitute.

Nationalist MP Michael Gonzi welcomed the fact that patients who suffered from cerebellum acacia would be eligible for a non-contributory pension but said the disease should be listed as Spinal Serepellum Acacia to include all sufferers.

He also suggested that the Home Care service should not be exclusive to elderly people because there were people who were not old but desperately need this service.

The Nationalist MP referred to the deductions from the pensions of elderly people living in state homes. He stressed that it was important to distinguish between an elderly person who had to stay in hospital for a very long time due to illness and another who only stayed in hospital as a social case. It was not fair that these situations were treated in the same way especially when pensions were deducted when a hospital stay exceeded six months.

Nationalist MP Frederick Azzopardi said the provisions of the bill reflected the government's social concerns.

The bill also removed anomalies such as that through which maintenance money a wife received from her former husband would no longer be considered as income for tax purposes.

Parliamentary Secretary Edwin Vassallo spoke on the importance of social services for those in need but insisted that the people should not have a mentality of depending on social services. Everybody should be made aware of the cost of social services.

He referred to pension deductions from residents of St Vincent de Paul Home and said such deducations were only made in the case of those who could afford them.

The opposition, Mr Vassallo said, was playing for the gallery and not making any proposals for a modern reform of social services, particularly pensions.

The parliamentary secretary said the key to the sustainability of pensions was economic growth, and measures should be taken to encourage more women to join the labour force.

In the sector of the self-employed, he was sure that more women worked than were actualy registered, a situation brought about because of high social security contributions. This was an area which needed to be rectified.

Noel Farrugia (MLP) said that society should strive to guarantee a better quality of life for all. Government spokesmen had admitted that social benefits are not sustainable.

The Nationalist Party in opposition had said that social security contributions were a bomb (bolla balla) but now these have grown to be an atomic bomb.

It was difficult to see how the government would address the sustainability problem, given the deteriorating financial situation and its inability to strike a good deal with the EU before accession.

As a result of that deal, the government which had claimed it could not afford the shipyard subsidies now had to fork out about Lm25 million in subsidies for the agricultural sector.

Mr Farrugia described these subsidies as a "cancer" and said MPs on both sides of the House, together with the five MEPs, should come together to see how to solve the issue.

These were present-day realities. The price of red meat would have to double in the coming weeks. What use would a 50 cent rise in pensions be when prices would rise much higher?

The government had promised that prices would not rise once Malta joined the EU, but the opposition had once again been proved right.

Competitiveness Minister Censu Galea said the government's policy post EU-accession was to strive to improve the Maltese people's quality of life.

Referring to aspects of the bill, Mr Galea insisted it was important that workers assumed their responsibilities to avoid occupational accidents seriously.

Sometimes workers took unnecessary risks that could be avoided. He urged the health and safety authority to increase the number of its inspections in places of work, particularly at construction sites and factories.