Simon Busuttil has hit out at what he described as “an obscene” agreement that sees the General Workers’ Union rake in a profit on 600 formerly unemployed individuals.
The Nationalist Party leader this morning said the union and the government were fostering precarious employment through this scheme.
He was referring to a scheme started this year through which 600 long-term unemployed individuals were transferred from the government employment agency JobsPlus to a foundation run by the GWU. The group were struck off the unemployment register.
The union gets a fee of €1,000 for each worker every month from which the individuals are paid a minimum wage. The union ends up making a €300 profit every month on each worker.
Dr Busuttil said these workers were being assigned jobs in government entities, alongside fixed workers who earned much more.
“We have situations where people are doing the same job but those with the scheme are earning some €300 less because they are paid a minimum wage… if this is not precarious employment I do not know what is,” Dr Busuttil said, adding this was obscene.
Addressing supporters in the Lija PN club, Dr Busuttil used the example to show how the PN had to be the voice for “the little man”, being forgotten by the Labour government.
Pitching his party as the party for workers, Dr Busuttil also drew a distinction between “the millionaire businesses courted by Labour” and “the small businesses” that were forgotten.
He said the PN’s proposal to cut income tax to 10 per cent for small companies, retailers and self-employed was targeted at a sector that had long been forgotten, even by previous PN administrations.
“We once again are the party for small business,” he said.
Dr Busuttil described the last week as a good one for the PN, insisting its position was vindicated when the constitutional court awarded it two extra parliamentary seats.
While using the four-year legal battle as an example of how to never give up, he cautioned that the road ahead was still hard and urged supporters to keep spreading the message that the PN was there for the “little man”.
The PN leader said his party would be lending its support to the call by the doctors’ union and the UĦM for the privatisation contract of public hospitals to be probed by parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC).
The PAC will meet tomorrow to start considering the call made by the two unions.