Updated: Forum insists for place on MCESD

(Adds government statement)

The Forum Unions Malta will be continuing with its campaign for a seat on the Malta Council for Economic and Social Development until the eve of the election if necessary.

Addressing a news conference this afternoon, Paul Pace and John Bencini said the Forum was asking the government to take a decision about whether it should be allowed on the council and not pass the buck to the social partners

“We do not want anyone to give up their place. All that needs to be done is that the government increases its seats by one, bringing the number up to five, employers will have five members and unions will have another five members,” they said.

Mr Pace and Mr Bencini said that the MCESD was unbalanced because employers had five seats against the unions’ four. Another problem was that the CMTU, which only represented 2,800 members, was on the council, but the Forum, which represented 12,000 members, was not.

It was pointed out that when the Federation of Industries and the Chamber of Commerce merged, there was no need for any unanimity or consensus to decide what would happen to their seats and although they were now one organisation they still had two seats.

The Forum said it was going to continue its campaign for inclusion in the MCESD until the eve of the election if necessary.

This was because it believed that anyone who wanted to contribute should be allowed to do so, especially a group of unions which represented the education, health and tourism sectors.

They Forum said its members would continue discussing all the issues discussed in the MCESD and would organise press conferences right outside the council building if necessary.

They criticised Vince Farrugia for not wanting them on board for a reason they said they could not understand but said his objections should not be the reason the government did not accept them.

GOVERNMENT'S REPLY

In a statement, the government said that last Friday it had proposed that the Forum’s request be discussed in an MCESD core group.

This was following a meeting between Parliamentary Secretary Chris Said and Forum president John Bencini.

During the meeting, Dr Said expressed the government’s position in favour of the Forum’s request if there was agreement between the social partners and the council.

He also proposed that Dr Bencini should meet the other social partners to convince them of his request.

Dr Said made it clear that he was willing to suggest the Forum’s request to be discussed in the council, as he had actually done. However, the proposal was not accepted by the constituted bodies and that was why the core group was not set up.

Dr Said insisted that the government could not impose a change in the council’s composition because this had been set up on consensus between the represented partners. So every change had to reflect this consensus.