AD backs full COLA payment

Workers should receive the full cost-of-living increase because failure to grant it would be a blow to stability and industrial peace which were essential for the country's competitiveness, Alternattiva Demokratika said.

The Green Party also called on the government to enact policies and effective mechanisms to keep inflation in check.

The government is planning to grant all employees a weekly €6.06 increase from 2009 in cost-of-living compensation (COLA). It is due to present its budget for 2010 on November 9.

The Chamber of Commerce has called for the postponement of Budget Day as it wants more time for the social partners to discuss the COLA issue, dismissing as "unsustainable" the package of measures proposed on the ground that a €6.06 wage put hundreds of jobs at risk.

While employers want the government to subsidise the wage increase, unions are insisting that cutting down or not awarding it is unacceptable as it makes up for increases in expenses that workers and their families had already forked out.

AD spokesman for Social and Economic Development Michael Briguglio said his party believed the full COLA should be granted to workers.

As regards the suggestion that the government should subsidise part of the increase, he cautioned that this could undermine the sustainability of public finances.

"This is far from an ideal solution as it would further deplete public funds which are desperately needed to improve public services, welfare, the country's infrastructure and investment in education and the environment," Mr Briguglio said.

The government should also consider an improved and more realistic mechanism for the calculation of COLA, Mr Briguglio said as he called for the implementation of mechanisms that would keep inflation in check.