Is it true that social benefits make claimants lazy? For one argument that supports this view, there is usually another that is against.
Tony Zahra, president of the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association, spoke his mind on the matter.
He is not the first to make the claim that social benefits make the unemployed lazy, nor will he be the last, for the issue has been discussed at length abroad, and, to a lesser extent, in Malta under different guises, for years.
It would be unwise to generalise, for, surely, there are people who, for more than one reason, are just unable to find the right work for them or who would need to be retrained if they are to find a job at all.
However, it would be equally correct to say that there are people who cunningly abuse the system, many times flagrantly too.
But Mr Zahra has gone a step further: “Let’s call a spade a spade, it’s not true that there are no jobs, people on benefits often don’t want to work; we need to act on this.”
It may be true that there are unemployed people who simply do not wish to take up a job as they feel comfortable enough living off the state, or, more precisely, the taxpayer, but maybe the hotelier would wish to clarify his remark as, in the way it has been reported at least, it may imply that there are jobs for everyone on the market.
Unemployment benefits were never seen as a last resort and if out of the 7,500 registered unemployed only 76 had indicated they were interested in working in the tourism industry, there must be some good reasons for this.
Does it mean the tourism industry, which already employs thousands of people, is not attractive enough for job seekers?
Hardly, considering the great number of skills the industry encompasses.
One probability though is that there may be a skills mismatch, a challenge to many economies.
What is the reading of the situation on this point today?
It would be interesting for the Employment and Training Corporation to reveal to what extent such a skills mismatch exists.
Getting the long-term unemployed into the labour market again is not an easy task, as every successive administration has found out for itself.
Good progress is being made in the efforts to raise the participation rate of women in the labour market even further. The new incentives for working women and for single parents announced in the Budget for next year are steps in the right direction, though the threshold for benefit in one scheme is far too low.
There are many programmes aimed at helping the unemployed to find jobs today and each administration keeps coming up with new initiatives. The internship scheme announced in the Budget is most interesting, of benefit to both those wanting to re-enter the labour market and employers.
Checking abuse is always a problem but, according to the reform programme, a number of moves are contributing to curb undeclared work. One of these, for example, is an increase in the penalty period for those who fail to take part in what they call “activation measures” without just cause on three or more occasions.
The effort to check abuse has to be kept up and strengthened through greater organisational efficiency.