GWU resents Chamber warning on jobs

The GWU said today that it was ready to discuss ways to improve competitiveness and safeguard jobs, but it resented the way how employers' associations always warned about job losses when the cost of living allowance (COLA) came up.

The union was reacting to comments made this morning by the Malta Chamber of Commerce and Industry (see separate story).

The GWU said it was surprised that the Chamber had chosen to comment on an MCESD document which was meant to be confidential because it was a basis for discussion.

It said it too have reservations about the documents, but in keeping with agreement between the social partners, it had not made its views public.

"The document says, black on white, that the COLA will be given as it was given in the past few years. Bu it now seems to ave become a habit that henever the governemnt indicated the level of COLA, the employers' associations come out to criticise this mechanism, when they know very well that it has brought about industrial peace in the country," the GWU said.

The Chamber this morning warned that a COLA of €6.06 as indicated in the COLA mechanism could cause hundreds of job losses in the private sector.

See also

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20091020/local/steep-wage-increase-could-mean-hundreds-of-job-losses-chamber-warns