MCESD to have three new members

Representatives from Gozo and from civil society will join the trade union confederation Forum on the council for social and economic development if draft amendments to be presented in Parliament today week are approved.

The announcement was made by the government last night, a few days after it agreed with the opposition that they would fast-track amendments to the law governing the council to allow Forum full membership.

12,000

union members represented by Forum

The confederation’s absence from the Malta Council for Social and Economic Development – in which several other union and industry representative bodies sit around the same table of discussions as the government – has been a particular bugbear for Forum.

Set up eight years ago, it has complained long and vociferously about the unfairness of being left out when it represents 12,000 members in 11 different unions.

The breakthrough came when it recently joined the European Trade Union Confederation, suddenly giving it added legitimacy in the eyes of the government. Last week it accep­ted observer status on the council.

Forum, Gozo and civil society will now each get a seat on the MCESD, whose members also include entities such as the Confederation of Malta Trade Unions and the Malta Employers Association.

The government said last night that this represented a natural development in the process of broadening dialogue within the council. This process had included the setting up of a Committee for Civil Society and a Regional Committee for Gozo, both of which had worked hard over the past few years.

In the meantime, the government is awaiting proposals from the committee tasked with discussing the restructuring of the MCESD. Those on which there is agreement would be considered for inclusion in the batch of amendments that is going to be presented on Monday, it said.