Doors are still open to PN, Prime Minister tells rally

Government doors were still open to bipartisan cooperation from the Nationalist Party opposition, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said yesterday.

People expect us to work together

Dr Muscat’s cross-party olive branch came one day after the PN declined an invitation for MP Tonio Fenech to sit on an economic growth committee, saying it would be tantamount to the Opposition serving as a Government consultant.

But according to the Prime Minister, the PN refusal was a slap in the face to Maltese people and businesses, which stood to gain the most from bipartisanship.

“We asked them join us at the table as equals, with the same duties and capacities, and they said no,” he told a crowd gathered in Ħamrun for a PL-organised Labour Day mass meeting.

“But we won’t be stubborn. Our doors are still open – people expect us to work together,” Dr Muscat added.

He argued that the Government’s bipartisan spirit was reflected in its decision to appoint PN-leaning figures to various public sector posts.

Criticism of other posts going to known PL supporters was unwarranted, he argued, with a rhetorical musing – “Can’t one be a Labourite in this country?” – raising a cheer.

The Prime Minister reiterated a warning he had made to employers last week. Anyone caught playing fast and loose with workers’ rights or coercing employees into not joining a trade union of their choice would be blacklisted for public contracts, he said.

People were finally coming round to the PL’s youth guarantee idea, Dr Muscat said. “Twelve months ago, we were being ridiculed for the suggestion. Now, all of Europe is backing the idea,” he said.

The ‘guarantee’ seeks to ensure that all youths are offered a job, further education or decent employment. Social affairs ministers from across EU states have agreed to implement such guarantees across the 27-state bloc.

Investment in education would continue to be a Government priority, Dr Muscat said. He spoke at length about a new €2 million postgraduate scholarship fund to be unveiled next week. Named Master It, the fund will make bursaries available to full-time, part-time and distance-learning Masters students. People without an undergraduate degree will also be able to apply, provided they have been accepted into a suitable Masters programme by a foreign university.

Dubbing the scheme “one of the most ambitious scholarship programmes Malta has ever had”, Dr Muscat also teased the crowd by saying that the Government would soon unveil an “exciting” new educational project.

Work would also begin on implementing Jobs Plus, an active labour market policy document drafted by Union Ħaddiema Magħqudin.

‘Combat precarious employment’

The Nationalist Party has called on the Government to step up its efforts to combat precarious employment.

As it paid tribute to workers on workers’ day yesterday, the party reiterated its position against precarious employment, which exploited workers, and encouraged the Government and employers to eliminate abuses at the workplace.

The PN said it was proud that, along the years, it had been a main protagonist, together with the Maltese workers, to build an economy which created employment and increased investment.

In a separate statement, Alternattiva Demokratika referred to the controversy on a revision of the cost-of-living-adjustment system, saying an escape clause would effectively translate into a wage freeze.

On precarious employment, AD said not enough was being done to curb abuses. The government’s tendering system should address this problem by inserting social criteria to reward rather than penalise employers offering decent working conditions.