When Prime Minister Joseph Muscat was campaigning in Żurrieq for the European Parliament elections, something unfortunate happened: he suffered radiation burns in both eyes. He described this experience “like blades slashing” his eyes.
Muscat was out of action for some days. A living room in Girgenti became his makeshift office as he slowly made the transition back to work. Like any government employee, especially one who rents his own car to himself for his official use, our Prime Minister was out on sick leave.
As an inquiry was still underway, Muscat said the incident left him anxious that it could happen again but that wasn’t going to stop him from attending the next activity. Playing the pity card often works and, should it have to happen again, there was always sick leave. He took the risk.
The Malta Employers’ Association does not believe an employee should be entitled to sick leave if his unfitness for work was self-inflicted. It mentions as examples sunburn and sunstrokes; Muscat’s UV radiation exposure comes close enough.
Had the Żurrieq incident happened again, and Malta ended up without a prime minister for the second time, then Muscat should not be entitled to sick leave, according to the MEA.
Muscat thinks their suggestion is draconian. Of course he does. It’s not popular.
It involves taking responsibility for your actions and he thrives on public irresponsibility. Much of his immense popularity is actually due to his catering for just that: a selfish lack of civic pride, civic responsibility and, yes, a lack of personal pride in doing what is right, and not what you can get away with.
As is the case with the EU passports sale scheme, Muscat too does what he thinks he can get away with, rather than what is appropriate. He reflects that terrible Mediterranean mentality which, when last in London, he had the gall to describe as an impeccable Anglo-Saxon work ethic.
If that were the case, then the MEA would not be coming up with these suggestions on sick leave, would they?
Employers are asking for tougher sick leave conditions, and with reason. Their proposal does not come in isolation.
They are already apprehensive about a government plan that will see them pay more national insurance contributions to fund the country’s maternity leave costs for self-inflicted pregnancies.
Labour is so quick at making pie-in-the-sky promises that it often forgets to say who will pick up the tab at the end.
Employers say they do not think their employees should be entitled to paid sick leave when they’re suffering from hangovers or want to have some plastic surgery done. The MEA proposals enter some grey areas when they speak of ‘self-inflicted’ ailments like sports injuries, for those can be truly accidental. So it is difficult to draw the line. But it is not draconian.
The trade unions came out in full force calling the proposals regressive. They’re probably savouring this moment because no one speaks of workers anymore now Labour is in government. This is a rare opportunity to push the socialist ideology Labour discarded.
The unions know full well what’s been getting under employers’ skin but they must please their members because unions are institutionalised populism.
I have no truck with them. The underlying fault with trade unionism is they want everyone treated the same, which they think is justice. But people are not the same and that is not an injustice either.
Roaring the loudest was Tony Zarb from the General Workers’ Union. Finally, he could take the muzzle off, albeit momentarily. He bravely stood up in front of Muscat at a dialogue meeting and said that prior to joining the EU people used to look at the likes of Germany, thinking that membership would be good for the country.
And now, Zarb appeared to say, all we are getting is a regressive policy from the MEA. Welcome to the same Europe that Muscat, your partner-in-arms, once so strongly vilified but now readily embraces. You may now proceed to smell his coffee.
Joseph Muscat does what he thinks he can get away with rather than what is appropriate
With the GWU happily basking in its swelling membership, thanks to the police and armed forces, it is its Enemalta members that are doing much of the smelling.
The government Zarb so readily supports is about to expose Enemalta workers to the worst form of capitalism, the Chinese version; evidently this is not regressive in the GWU’s books.
Armed Forces of Malta personnel, affiliate members of Zarb’s union, who turn up for work sunburned are considered to have committed a military offence because they allowed themselves to become unfit for duty. The Labour government is the employer in this case. Zarb does not appear to have any difficulty with that.
Interestingly, the Prime Minister drew a parallel between sick leave abuse and school truancy. Statistics show a high absenteeism rate in State schools, where attendance rate is 15 per cent less than at independent schools.
He said he was shocked to hear school heads say that students often asked how many more school days they could miss without getting into trouble.
It’s easy to guess where they got their inspiration from: they’ve heard their parents counting their remaining sick leave days. So very Anglo-Saxon, isn’t it?
The sad tragedy of all this is that the one man who can carry out the necessary cultural change is actually Muscat.
His immense popular support and his impressive election results place him in a unique position with an equally unique opportunity that may not be repeated for many years to come.
He is the only man who can afford the electoral fallout that would surely come in the wake of government measures introducing discipline and a much-needed sense of civic responsibility in this country. It is called working for the common good instead of attending to individual and sectoral self-interest.
Muscat is doing the very opposite and it is a shame, considering his obsession with his place in history.
In the same breath as Muscat called the MEA proposals draconian, he was also preaching to the EU about where to look for investment. Then he moved on to speak of the societal change in Malta that came about following EU accession.
His interpretation is a bit superficial as there was more than one factor that has brought about the cultural changes that made the introduction of divorce and, more recently, civil unions (but not gay adoptions), palatable to the public. None of this cultural change was thanks to Labour. They just knew how to exploit it.
Labour’s obsession with populism and with avoiding taking measures that in some way would upset anyone anywhere is slowly grinding this country to a halt and reducing it to chaos.
The biggest evidence of this is the shambles in the enforcement of planning laws. This country, which Muscat intends to make the best in Europe, has a wholly illegal zoo in Ħal-Farruġ that sprung out of nowhere (but the animals are fine, the lawyers say) and a new road on Comino that appears to have fallen out of the skies.
In Gozo, a restaurant scheduled for demolition by Mepa is actually receiving compensation for it to make way for Muscat’s next blockbuster film. And, meanwhile, the Malta Tourism Authority is trying to clamp down on illegal restaurants that just mushroom all over the place.
Above all, this government inaction is an injustice with business owners and employers who pay their licences, follow the rules, pay their taxes and, yes, don’t want their employees to abuse of their sick leave.
In choosing the path of least resistance, in ignoring the common good and embracing populism to the point of perversity, Labour is not doing this country any good.
This is just the same old common Labour virus we know.
It is only a matter of time before this country too may need some sick leave.