Workers in the private sector should still receive a weekly wage increase of €4.08 in January irrespective of the Budget outcome, according to an industrial relations consultant.

There is nothing to stop this process being implemented

But the situation may be different for civil servants because the Budget must be approved for the Government to source additional funds to pay the increase due to its employees.

Alfred Mallia Milanes yesterday said statutory wage increases have always been introduced by legal notice issued by the Finance Minister in December.

He insisted the cost-of-living-adjustment had nothing to do with the Budget. “However, the minister has to issue the legal notice for employers to start paying it.”

COLA is established by a mechanism agreed to between unions and employers and is based on the average yearly rate of inflation until September. The weekly increase is awarded from January.

However, doubts have been cast on whether the raise will start to be paid by employers in January as a result of the Budget not being approved.

On Friday, the General Workers’ Union said it would not accept a situation where workers did not receive the cost-of-living compensation.

It said the procedure adopted for several years was that after the Budget announcement, the Employment Relations Board would approve the increase and the Finance Minister published a legal notice.

“There is nothing to stop this process from being implemented,” the GWU said, adding this also applied to Government employees.

But industrial relations lawyer Ian Spiteri Bailey said it has always been the practice to include the statutory wage increase as part of the Budget measures.

“The Government seems to have proposed it as a Budget measure so I would assume that if the Budget fails, it will not come into effect like other measures,” he said.

However, he noted there was nothing to stop the Government from introducing the wage increase separately from the Budget, even for its employees, especially since this was agreed by all social partners.

ksansone@timesofmalta.com