Working till 65...for the lazy

Due to social services galore, inadequate enforcement and poor management, different categories of shameful, lazy guys reign the labour force. These include: non genuine boarded-out people, happy unemployed people who prefer to remain officially jobless, late-comers and nasty workers who vanish early, or just sign their attendance, and repetitive sick-leavers.

Here come the solutions: Type 1 cases should be regularly reviewed, if possible every year, by a board composed of at least five people. The board should be renewed with new faces every three years. Members of the investigating board, including doctors, should be subject to heavy penalties if they do not perform their jobs with great professional care and responsibility.

Many Maltese people who started working at a young age claim invalidity in their 50s in order to receive a full pension early because the present system allows individuals to accumulate a two-thirds pension after just 30 years of contributions. This definitely has to change as proposed in the White Paper for Pension Reform.

Special enforcement officers should act immediately and go straight on the spot like furious eagles upon receiving just a phone call. The caller need not identify him/herself, or otherwise strict confidentiality has to be observed. These officers should even act against someone who is supposed to be unfit for work and then is reportedly seen fixing his TV aerial on the roof, let alone if caught earning an income from an unregistered job. Type 1, 2 and 3 are all vulnerable prey for my proposed "eagles".

Type 2 people who refuse work that may be offered to them from time to time should have their names immediately deleted from the register, if the reason is not justified.

Besides sending the doctor at home for Type 4 people, the government should also consider my pension reform proposal, namely "the more one actually stays at work, the earlier he retires". As explained in previous articles regarding pensions, this idea not only discourages Type 3 and 4 abuses, but also promotes productivity. However, it has to be worked out in ranges. For example, if by using modern techniques such as palm readers you accumulated a total of between say 73,500 to 75,000 working hours, you become entitled for retirement at 63. The mere three-month maximum of pre-retirement leave for public service workers is, however, not a strong incentive to discourage sick leave abuses.

My proposal of "the more you stay at work the earlier you retire" also addresses the great anomaly that exists between the majority of workers who have to deliver 40 hours a week as opposed to certain categories of government employees who have royalty conditions of work comparable to nowhere in Europe!

It is absolutely unacceptable that we have to work till 65 for lazy, selfish people as well. Enough is enough!