Employers and economists have sounded the alarm on the increase in public-sector workers during the past year and have called for restraint in recruitment.
The number of new employees recruited by the government rose by nearly 1,900 since the Labour Party’s election in March 2013, according to recently-released figures.
Despite repeated questions from this newspaper, the Finance Ministry has not provided the figure of the estimated increase in the public wage bill.
Based on a conservative annual wage of less than €11,000 a year, Times of Malta calculated it would amount to a minimum of €20 million a year.
Finance Minister Edward Scicluna insisted there is no upward trend in public sector employment, but a relative marginal reduction, basing his declaration on the percentage of the labour force which grew substantially since 2008. But the Malta Employers’ Association said it is alarmed and cannot understand the need for this massive increase in government employees.
“During the last years, efforts have been made to decrease the size of the public service and we have been somehow successful,” MEA director general Joe Farrugia said.
“It seems this is now being reversed and it’s not a good idea. We have to see how we are going to finance these new salaries and analyse what the country is getting out of them,” he said.
Mr Farrugia added that, although he understood the need to employ more nurses, for example, he could not fathom why more people were required at the Water Services Corporation.
According to economist Lawrence Zammit, the increase was only partially explanatory because some 600 Arriva workers had ended up on the government’s books after it temporarily took over the public transport system.
“We must seriously take note of what is going on and try to continue to decrease the public service,” he said.
“The country cannot afford all this recruitment, particularly in areas which are not productive,” he said.
Two private industrialists, who employ a substantial number of people, told this newspaper that, while they were not finding enough people to recruit, some of their employees were openly claiming they had been promised a job by the government.
“I am finding it very hard to employ Maltese unskilled workers and train them on the job. That’s why I have to employ foreigners,” a 45-year-old textile firm owner said.
An employer in the transport sector said some workers were even boasting openly with their colleagues that they will soon be employed with the government.
According to the Finance Ministry, apart from the 600 former Arriva workers, between March 2013 and March 2014 the government also employed 402 public administrators, 400 in the health sector and 300 others in education. A total of 1,879 workers were employed.
NSO figures show that between March 2008 and March 2013 only 900 new jobs were added to the public service.
We must try to continue to decrease the public service
However, Finance Minister Edward Scicluna insisted the public sector workforce had not increased. “NSO data confirm that the share of public-sector full-time jobs in March 2014 stood at 26.5 per cent, down from 29.1 per cent in March 2008, 28 per cent in March 2010, and 26.7 per cent in March 2013. “This means that the current share of public-sector full-time jobs is the lowest it has been over the past six years,” Prof. Scicluna insisted.
The NSO last week said that, while in March 2013 the number of public sector employees stood at 41,507, in March 2014 it shot up to 43,386.
Asked to confirm these data, the Finance Ministry failed to reply.
Questioned again to produce the cost of public-sector wages related to the figures issued by the NSO, the Finance Ministry said it was still gathering the data.
“What matters most to the government in reaching its deficit target is public expenditure, which in the context is represented as the total compensation to employees. Here also, public service employee compensation as a percentage of GDP stood at 13.6 per cent during the first quarter of 2014, significantly lower than in 2008 and 2009, when it stood at 13.9 per cent,” Prof. Scicluna said.