Unions mum on proposals to government

Trade unions emerged optimistic from yesterday's meeting with the Prime Minister, held to discuss revisions to the controversial water and electricity rates, although they remained mum on the details of their proposals.

Lawrence Gonzi also met the Chamber of Small and Medium Enterprises - GRTU, which presented its calculations on how to reduce the global figure Enemalta needs to collect in order to balance its books.

A spokesman for the Prime Minister said the proposals from both meetings will be analysed according to the government's principles of discouraging waste and paying for what is consumed.

Asked whether the government would satisfy the unions' demands, the spokesman said: "We would have to wait and see".

He described the meeting with the GRTU as wide-ranging and comprehensive while the one with the unions was important because they provided concrete proposals instead of criticism, as they had done so far.

The trade unions, which joined forces to protest in Valletta last Friday, yesterday made sure they approached the Prime Minister as a united front when they presented nine proposals.

General Workers' Union general secretary Tony Zarb said the proposals were based on social justice and aimed at easing the burden on the public.

The general secretary of the Union Ħaddiema Magħqudin, Gejtu Vella added that the ball was now in Dr Gonzi's court to come up with a reasonable revision of the tariffs.

The unions did not propose to return to the old system of a surcharge but insisted on tweaking the tariffs to be fairer on the public, William Portelli, of the Confederation of Malta Trade Unions, said.

Dr Gonzi will now discuss the proposals with his experts and get back to the unions with a reply, according to the president of the Malta Union of Teachers, John Bencini.

He said he was optimistic because the door to discussion, which was previously shut tight, had now been opened slightly.

GRTU director general Vince Farrugia also expressed optimism after his meeting and was expecting a solution to be reached in time to ensure a good Christmas for business. He reiterated that now was a very bad time to burden small enterprises with huge tariffs.

Mr Farrugia said that, due to the global recession, Malta might suffer from a rise in unemployment, so investment was necessary to absorb idle resources, particularly in the tourism sector.

The GRTU presented a number of proposals on investment to Dr Gonzi, who listened intently, according to Mr Farrugia. Discussions will continue on a technical level with the Finance Ministry's experts.

"We have no time to waste. We don't want businesses to go through a bad Christmas. We want this darkness lifted so that we can face the challenges ahead as a united front," he said. The GRTU said it had conducted a survey (which will be released shortly) among shop owners, which showed they were in a very bad situation, especially due to the shockwaves created by the controversial tariffs.

The meetings, requested by the unions and the GRTU last week, were held at Castille in the presence of Deputy Prime Minister Tonio Borg. Infrastructure Minister Austin Gatt and Finance Minister Tonio Fenech, the architects of the new utility rates, were not present for either meeting.