Steep wage increase could mean 'hundreds' of job losses, Chamber warns

R. Mallia

Oct 22nd 2009, 16:19

@C. Sapiano
very intelligent of you to compare Malta to easter Europe. Great, it is an achievement for Malta to be better off than ex-Communist countries, we are still behind all developed, democratic European Countries

@J. Borg
If you say that EUR 1000 (less taxes = around EUR850) per month should be a threshold, it follows that you believe that it is a good salary that permits a decent standard of living. You are living in Disneyworld, trust me.

R. Mallia

Oct 22nd 2009, 16:13

you call 24 EUR every 4 weeks steep? give me a break!!! It is a negligible amount for workers struggling hard to maintain their family with malta's wages which verge on the ridiculous. For starters try having a look at civil service wages...

R. Mallia

Oct 22nd 2009, 15:59

you call 24 EUR every 4 weeks steep? give me a break!!! It is a negligible ammount for workers struggling hard to maintain their family with malta's wages which verge on the ridiculous. For starters try having a look at civil service wages...

Joe Morana

Oct 21st 2009, 09:59

Malta’s minimum wage€ 634.75 per month is lower than those of some EU Countries e.g Luxemburg €1,641.00 per month, France €1,337.70 , Belgium €1,440.67, Netherlands€1,398.00, Ireland €1,499.33 , Austria €1,000.00 Greece € 701.00 , Cyprus€ 840.00. On the other hand it is higher than wages in Spain €624, Slovenia €566.53 , Portugal€ 450 Slovakia €295.49.
The proposed €6.06 COLA increase of per week amounts to circa 4.57% (including 10% NI contribution paid by employers) which will raise of our national minimum wage to circa €661 per month (excluding 10% NI contributions paid by employers).
While the increase amounts to circa 4.57% on the minimum wage the same nominal increased of 6.06 euros will lose its percentage increase impact in relation to the higher wages paid to the more skilled workforce.
Clearly these figures may lead one to suggest that Maltese competitiveness cannot be based on suppressed wages, but on further investment in human resource development ar all levels and in technological development. `

Joseph A Borg

Oct 21st 2009, 09:05

@ G.Debono

maybe you should start to live within your means. Bank loans should be taken judiciously and conservatively.

Paul Ciantar

Oct 21st 2009, 08:36

or less spendings by the bosses.. it seems workers have always to do the sacrificies... please do not go on politics... I am not a leftist

Ramon Casha

Oct 21st 2009, 05:38

Of course! And in fact they'd be able to employ MORE people if they didn't have to give them any wages at all.

C.ZARB

Oct 20th 2009, 23:00

The biggest socialist are those firms who continually ask the government for subsidies and grants while pretending that he should close an eye on two on the employee's COLA. Whenever one of us fail to pay taxes all hell breaks loose and yet, when one of these gentlemen decide not to pay VAT or escape from paying duty, then they end up with just a suspended sentence.

The government would be wise to investigate why certain items (Ex medicine) are so high in Malta when compared to the rest of Europe. He should also introduce property taxes which increase according to the amount/size of your houses and higher taxes on yachts, luxury cars etc. While at it, it wouldnt be a bad idea to increase the income tax band for the truly big earners (40k - 50k+). If the business men are so poor then I am sure that they won't be hit by such reform.

The truth is that we live in a country where everyone is taken care off (MPs, MEPs, business men, immigrants, single mothers etc) apart from the honest taxpayer. The latter have to pay for everyone and never ask anything back.

C.Zarb

Oct 20th 2009, 21:03

@ E Gatt

Malta has the second highest cost of living in Europe

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20090719/local/price-to-wage-levels-in-malta-77-higher-than-eu-average

That's not exactly something we should be proud of.

Anthony Mizzi

Oct 20th 2009, 20:48

@Joe Micallef

Simple! a larger budget deficit, - we already have that after 20 years of nationalist party administration
larger national debt - we already have that after 20 years of nationalist party

and consequently the need for higher taxes now or in the future. - HOW HIGHER CAN YOU GET? The future is already the present thanks to Gonzipn.

Has there ever been a budget with a surplus under Fenech Adami or Gonzipn administration of the country's finances?



Deficit spending should be viewed as a tax on future generations, and politicians who create deficits should be exposed as tax hikers.

Ron Paul

B Zammit

Oct 20th 2009, 19:29

@ Steven Brockwell

Some people really believe that Gonzi "put everything up". They really believe that the prime minister controls the world price of oil. Guys there's a whole wide outside Malta!

Stephen Borg Cardona

Oct 20th 2009, 19:21

Most of the increase in cost of living is due to measures taken by the Big Agents who do not have enough v competition and take advantage of this. Possibly the Chamber should discuss things with them as they are its members.

Steven Brockwell

Oct 20th 2009, 19:11

with rising cost how does gonzi expect the people to live, we all need the wages rise just to keep going and try to sustain our standard of living ? may be gonzi should have thought about this before he put everything up ?????? we are only human

P. Schembri

Oct 20th 2009, 18:29

@E. Gatt

"The PL leadership have to reflect the same sentiment of their grassroots". That's where you're wrong. You're so blinded with the PN propaganda that you don't see the wood from the trees. Joseph Muscat is already changing the mentality of them and us! The only them he mentions ( and that's rarely) is when referring to the PN!

E Gatt

Oct 20th 2009, 17:19

Apart from the ‘us versus them’ attitude, the anti-business feeling expressed by some socialist commentators is worrying. They just don’t realise that management and staff work as a team in competition with other organisations. Higher costs make them less competitive and the country less attractive for new business ventures. Higher wages should come naturally to those who keep their training up to date and improve productivity. Nobody owes us a living.

The PL leadership have to reflect the same sentiment of their grassroots – a major reason why PL should remain in opposition, in my opinion.

Dylan Olliver

Oct 20th 2009, 17:00

Mrs Ellul, do you know what the best solution would be? Give your employees the same wage that you have and then ask them never to ask for a pay rise again. I am sure they'll all agree.

samuel ramage

Oct 20th 2009, 16:46

@ L GALEA.
So lets have tit for tat then all Maltese out of the uk who are working and are not married to British citizens then. Wake up and smell the coffee and get a life.

Robert Caruana

Oct 20th 2009, 16:22

@H.Ellul

If 6.06Euro per week is STEEP, what do you comment on the MEP salary increases this year?

from €1,295 monthly to €7,665 monthly ---------------->540% INCREASE
PLUS €300,000 allowances each annually NON TAXABLE

These salary increases are IMMORAL when thousands of people are losing their jobs. This is what you should comment about.

A. Zahra

Oct 20th 2009, 16:07

@MBorg
Ministers and MPs get their salary increases when government labourers and clerks do. The salary of Ministers and MPs is pegged to that of the Civil Service. If you want to freeze the salary of MPs, you would have to also freeze the salaries of all government employes.

D.MANGION

Oct 20th 2009, 16:04

L.Galea

You had a good speech going on down here....until you messed it up by thinking that the solution lies in the expulsion of foreigners out of Maltese jobs.

Don't forget that the number of jobs available for the Maltese workers within the European Union is increasing...and I'm sure that it will continue to increase because the Maltese worker can, and will make a success story out of it.

But what goes around comes around. If we reserve our vacancies for our nationals, our fellow europeans will do the same thing to us....and rather than solving our problem we will be increasing it.

The problem lies within the greed of our higher class. They enjoyed it when it was good and now they want us workers to bite the bone when the going is getting tough....In the meantime they keep playing with their yachts, villas, big cars and recently their new "hobby"..wild exotic animals as pets.

....and come the next meeting with their subordinates, they will just make us believe that the end of the World is around the corner.

Yes...workers need to unite again....we need to rediscover the power of the workers !

Jonathan P. Mallia

Oct 20th 2009, 15:33

@ E. Gatt
Correction, if I may. We are not exactly in between, we're much near the lower strata of least paid EU members. However when you include the direct and indirect taxes we have to pay, we are by far the worst off in Europe.

Massimo Farrugia

Oct 20th 2009, 15:28

If a MISERABLE weekly payrise of 6.06 euros is STEEP, how should the exponential out-of-control increase in the COST OF LIVING be described?

I really hope Tonio Fenech does not come up with a 300 euro WEEKLY PAYRISE for MPs again, while he jets off for a day on private private jets for free, and people lead even more miserable lives.

Frank Said

Oct 20th 2009, 15:27

The industrialists, hoteliers and other businessmen in such turbulent circumstances tend to insist for substantial grants, for special rates on their water and electricity consumption, on fuel, for lesser taxes and an endless list of other assistance.
Who is paying for all this? Is it not the taxpayer? Every being on this small island knows that the majority of the taxpayers are employees. So these honourable gentlemen are pretending that the employees carry the financial burden so that they, under many dubious pretensions, keep insisting and getting grants, subsidies not to say that several of them have the cheek to evade taxes. Otherwise how could they afford to have and maintain luxurious villas, cars and yachts.

mario gellel

Oct 20th 2009, 15:26

In reality, not only do the working class deserve the wage rise but a goverment garantee that for next year there will be pice freeze. We have been tarnished too much now. Enough of these kinds of threats comming from whom did'nt care less about prices going sky high since it was them that were filling their pockets. The workers should unite.
WORKING CLASS PEOPLE, STAND UP FOR YOUR RIGHTS....

g farrugia

Oct 20th 2009, 14:42

steep?????? we re talking approx Lm10/ month plus tax..!!!!!

Eleonora Bonnici

Oct 20th 2009, 14:27

It is rather easy for a top notch Mr Ellul to propogate lower wages because she can afford the inflation rate but how can hard working low paid workers cope?. Ellul can answer one question: How come in europes lowest wage country have one of the highest priced industry? A possible answer is greedy businessmen or incompetent top notch CEOs.

N.Cortis

Oct 20th 2009, 14:21

6.06 ewro as a cost of living increase is surly not enough to make good for the very high cost of living we have experienced this year!!!! COLA mechanism calculations are not real!! We who do the shoppings can tell how cost of living has soared this year!! From a super market in in the south of Malta for a purchase amounting 100.75 Ewro I had to pay (extra) 18.56 Ewro on objects purchased with an 18% vat,and another 6.24 Ewro with a 5% vat!! So I had to fork out 24.80 Ewro extra.So for an actual expenditure of 75.95 Ewro I had to add 24.8 Ewros extra----bringing the rotal to 100.75 Ewros!!!! This expenditure repeats itself every fortnight!!
In Dom Mintoff's days,back in the seventies,all the workers were given for two consecutive years Lm 4.00 (equivalent to 9.72) Ewros weekly wage increase!!!!!! What a big difference!!!! Nobody today mention the many good things that the workers ,the poor,the children,the pregnant women,the pensioners,equal pay for women workers,and when we come to cost of living increase it was under labour Govts.that a flat rate for everyone was introduced----before 1971,WAGE INCREASE WAS GIVEN ON A PERCENTAGE basis .

Ludwig Flask

Oct 20th 2009, 13:50

@ C.ZARB: further to your comment "struggling businesses have been helped financially not to close down", note that most struggling businesses didn't receive any financial help because no one published the "terms & conditions" for the much publicised financial help, with the end result of increasing the work load and pressure on the humble employee!

Ludwig Flask

Oct 20th 2009, 13:45

@ The Malta Chamber of Commerce and Industry: the wage increase is needed by your hard workers to cope with this government's mess! Making lesser profit to balance the wage increase won't make you a difference, you'll still earn double or triple more than an average wage. As I commented to previous related wage increase reports the wage increase should be €20!

MBorg

Oct 20th 2009, 13:34

MPs & MEPs have had thrie salary increased. Plus they know that they have a high pension waiting for them. Is it not abnout time that Joe citizen has some good come his way too ?

It is a good thing that pensioners are now getting the full COLA , because after all they do not buy from special shops with lower prices. They also have to pay the same rates as everybody. The minimum pension should also be increased.to prevent pensioners from going below the poverty line.

James Aguis

Oct 20th 2009, 13:27

The govt. MUST be really thinking of how to make the economic wheel go round, as its currently close to stationary! People or so cautious at their spending, due to the fact that the spending power is close to none! The value of daily expenses is and has been going up exponentially lately, leaving us less money in our pockets. Diesel, water, electricity, gas, bread, and other common things all went up in the last year.

Believe me that what is being proposed as a wage increase is far from what is enough for us to make up with today's cost of living!

Robert Caruana

Oct 20th 2009, 13:27

Of course if you hold a number of salaried posts :

- CEO of one company in Malta
- chairman of another company in USA
- governor of another body in Malta
- president of a chamber

you don't really mind about 6Euro would you?

Galea. L

Oct 20th 2009, 13:20

No Helga.
A lot of enterprises have jumped on the recession bandwagon as Scrooges to continue skinning their workers alive. How about the companies and their managers decreasing their salary and profits instead of putting people out of work? The increase which is NOT enough to compensate for the increase in the cost of living must be given as part of the wages otherwise it will not be considered for pensions. Workers should unite together to force the expulsion of all foreign workers who are not married to Maltese citizens who are taking their jobs in our own country, for as the British say, Charity begins at home. Why should we have foreign workers of whatever nationality working in Malta while thousands of Maltese citizens cannot find work in our own country?
WORKERS LET'S UNITE TOGETHER AND FIGHT FOR OUR RIGHTS.

Michael Neville Cassar

Oct 20th 2009, 13:19

So this is the crunch either your do as you are told or off workers, and Allowance?? Which means you will get less pension. Remember the children allowance, they do not add up for your old age pensions, what audacity first they make out profits then they politely threaten jobs redundancy nothing less than hidden slavery.Money no problem Im alright and thats it you can talk your head off,Cola or no Cola no control on the cost of living.

C. Farrugia

Oct 20th 2009, 13:15

This seems to be a question of being without a job or being paid less for the job one is doing. British Airways employees offered a reduciton in their pay packet, others have offered to work hours for free. It is either like this or with reduced jobs. Not much of a choice. Those that invest need to have their returns and without these returns at the end of the year they shut down. Bang goes employment.

Joe Micallef

Oct 20th 2009, 13:12

@ Anthony Mizzi

Simple! a larger budget deficit, larger national debt and consequently the need for higher taxes now or in the future.

John Inguanez

Oct 20th 2009, 13:11

Dear employers, an agreement is an agreement to be kept until revised on common agreement. What if someone have a contract and says:"hi, I cannot pay the price, I take off 20%", what would the businessmen say.

And I never got an answer where did the saving from bank commissions following the euro adoption go...surely not on cheaper prices but in the businessman's pockets. Now they are yelling they could not pay COLA.

J Borg

Oct 20th 2009, 13:11

€6.06 is insane. Government and opposition are not heeding the IMF advice and remove it.
They could compromise - but they don't, as they both lose votes. I suggest COLA should be enjoyed by people earning less than a certain amount (say less than €12K).
Politician never do the right things but do things that please voters.

C.Sapiano

Oct 20th 2009, 13:08

@C.Zarb

For statistics purposes

We dont have the lowest salaries in Europe. Our salaries are lower than that of western Europe but higher than those of eastern Europe. There are many countries in Europe which have lower wages than Malta (Ex:Russia, Ukraine, Moldovia, Romania, Bulgaria etc...)

E Gatt

Oct 20th 2009, 13:05

@ C Zarb

We neither have the lowest salaries in Europe nor do we have the highest.
They are somewhere in between.

G.Debono

Oct 20th 2009, 12:51

Everybody mentioning "Particularly to the low income earner" Why?

I have a salary a bit higher then low income earners, but I pay tax through my nose, I paid for my education and no one helped. The cost of living goes up for me as well and I have 4 mouths to feed, not just one. I have a big loan with the banks, with interest eating me away.

Ms. Helga Ellul, I buy the same bread that a low income earner.

At the end of the day, the money (net) in my hand is equivalent or worse off than "low income earners".
COST OF LIVING affects everyone, and should be given to all. We all give at least 8 hrs a day of work, then part time work, and i have more responsibility than a low income earner.

We should all get the same COLA amount, the difference being that low income earners, do not already pay taxes, are help from many fronts, get quasi free social housing, dont pay heavy bills for utilities etc...

Kat Gauci

Oct 20th 2009, 12:48

Many employers have taken advantage of the recession, not to give out performance bonuses and merited wage rises. If COLA is left up to the employers to give out, everyone knows how it will end...

Lorraine Vella

Oct 20th 2009, 12:43

tajjeb! mela allura we shouldn't get the increase in staple and daily things... because if we don't get an increase, how can we common mortals be expected to cope?!?!?!!?

C.ZARB

Oct 20th 2009, 12:41

We have the lowest salaries in Europe and yet we have to sustain a cost of living which is getting higher by the minute. Everyone seem to have taken a slice of the cake. MP/MEPs have had a salary increase and struggling businesses have been helped financially not to close down. Now its the labourer's time.

Neville Zammit

Oct 20th 2009, 12:36

Nixtieq nistaqsi, forsi jkun hawn min jilluminani. M ilhux Austin Gatt qalilna li jekk il-prezz taz-zejt jinzel ghal 80 dollaru s-surcharge tispicca!

Issa l-prezz taz-zejt qieghed TAHT it-80 dollaru izda minflok li ser tispicca s surcharge ser tizdiet!

Neville Zammit

Oct 20th 2009, 12:29

Another option for the government is reducing taxation and utility bills so thw worker's unions don't ask for more wage increases. I think this suggestion is useless anyways as our dear prime minister with a great social conciene have already started to prepare us for another increase of the electricity bills!

It is a vicious circle, taxation increase = increase in cost of living = workers unions demand wage increase = employers increase prices = purchasing power is further weakened and her we'll be right at the begginning of a new cycle!

Tonio Bone

Oct 20th 2009, 12:28

The government should work on reducing it's cost. If the government reduces it's cost seriously and stops spending on capital projects that we simply cannot afford perhaps we will one day take control of our deficit and stop increasing the cost of living on a daily basis. The working class need the increase, the struggling private sector will need to show resolve, and the government will have an added cost on it's large workforce, not to mention the various corporations and entities which will somehow increase the cost of this-and-that to make ends meet.
In the end it's a case of putting money in your left pocket and taking it out of your right!

J.Borg

Oct 20th 2009, 12:24

"the Chamber is proposing that the cost of living adjustment (COLA) in the forthcoming budget should be given as an allowance rather than as part of the salary.

Allowance or not, busnisses still have to fork out the amount of increase.
And if given as an allowance this will not be included in the pension scheme.

When the amount of COLA was low, no one stood up and told the government to give a higher increase, but now everyone is asking for a lower increase.

The Chamber and GRTU should turn to the government, as it was because of the government's induced costs, that we are in this position......due to higher electricity tarifs, etc,etc

Anthony Mizzi

Oct 20th 2009, 12:17

What would reducion in surcharges on utility bills, gas, and government services result in?

The ball is in Dr. Gonzi and his cashier Dr. Tonio Fenech's feet.