Wages policy talks

The Malta Employers' Association expresses its strong condemnation to the speculative reporting carried in The Times about the negotiations currently underway at the MCESD for a wages policy.

For example, the report states that "the reduction in public holidays seems to be more fundamental to the GRTU and the FOI than to the Employers' Association".

This statement is completely unfounded since it is common knowledge that the MEA has for years claimed that Malta has an excessive number of public holidays.

This is also documented in the report issued by the MEA last May, Generating Productive Employment - A National Priority, which included a reduction in public holidays as one of the many recommendations in the report to restore Malta's competitiveness.

The journalist of The Times did not even have the decency of contacting the MEA before making such false assertions.

Instead, he chose to rely on second-hand information, which, in the circumstances, is both unethical and unprofessional. The "divergent views between employers" he refers to exist only in his imagination.

It is disappointing that a serious newspaper such as The Times opts to stoop to such sensationalistic tactics without verifying the facts. Whoever is feeding such distorted information to The Times clearly does not have the national interest at heart, otherwise he/she would understand that such irresponsible actions only serve to diminish the probability of reaching an agreement between the social partners.