Unions accuse GWU of intransigence

The Union Haddiema Maghqudin threw the ball back into its critics' court yesterday and claimed that the General Workers' Union had proposed a wage freeze while a recent economic document drawn up by the Labour Party had suggested the elimination of workers' bonuses.

The failure to draw up a social pact by last Saturday meant that workers and the economy had been deprived of the necessary shot in the arm, according to UHM general secretary Gejtu Vella. The failure, he added, also left the door open for the government to take tough action.

In a joint press conference, the UHM and the Confederation of Malta Trade Unions revealed some of the details of the proposed social pact - which failed to materialise despite weeks of haggling.

The union representatives lambasted the GWU, accused it of intransigence and said it had failed to come up with plausible alternatives to the social pact, except for a suggestion to freeze wages.

A document on the economy drawn up by the MLP last summer had proposed the elimination of the quarterly bonus, which means workers would have a Lm4 weekly cut in their pay.

Mr Vella said the government had committed itself to refrain from raising income taxes and VAT for a period of four years once the social pact was drawn up. No government would normally make such a promise, he said.

Over the next four years, employees will lose 15 days of vacation leave, derived from public holidays falling on the weekend. But the UHM and the CMTU said workers would have only lost eight days if a social pact had been drawn up.

The government had also agreed to discuss with the Malta Council for Economic and Social Development any measures which were seen as having an impact on the public's purchasing power.

The MCESD would have also been allowed to scrutinise public expenditure and a pledge had been made to strengthen the Tax Compliance Unit.

The draft pact had also bound the authorities to introduce "effective training" programmes to the unemployed and the setting up of a national fund for training, research and innovation. All part-time workers would have been given new rights and the government was contemplating pro rata vacation leave and sick leave for those working fewer than 20 hours a week.

The government had agreed to remove the one per cent annual capping of public sector salaries. Any reference relating to the reallocation of government workers and changes to working hours had also been eliminated. The figure of cash payments exempted from tax would have increased from Lm26 to Lm52.

"It's now clear that we're not mature enough to realise the national interests," Mr Vella said.

In a statement shortly afterwards, the GWU denied it had proposed a wage freeze at any point in its discussions.

On the contrary, the GWU said it had informed Parliamentary Secretary Tonio Fenech it would not form part of an agreement which proposed a wage freeze. The union insisted that any increases negotiated in a collective agreement would have to form part of the salary structure.

The GWU noted that during the press conference, the UHM and the CMTU did not deny that they were in agreement with the package proposed by the government.

The GWU said it would be providing details on the discussions on the social pact in the coming days but insisted that until its last meeting on Saturday, the government had only made a few concessions.

"If the GWU accepted all the proposals made by the government, all burdens would have been lumped onto the workers," the union said.