Malta’s lower ranking in an international corruption index is not an indication of good governance, according to the outgoing president of the Malta Employers Association, Arthur Muscat.
Addressing the association’s annual general meeting for the last time, he said local issues were affecting the work environment in which employers had to operate.
“A loss of 10 places in an international corruption index is not an indicator of good governance. A strongly-perceived regression in administrative transparency does not encourage local and foreign investment and the same applies to regulatory transparency, which is such an important requisite for the health of the high employment financial sector.
Mr Muscat was the second head of a business organisation to raise the issue of good governance in the space of two days. The president of the Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Enterprise, Anton Borg, said during a meeting with the Prime Minister on Monday: “We cannot shy away from our responsibilities to express our utmost concern about the issues of good governance we are allowing to consistently persist.”
In his address on Tuesday evening, Mr Muscat also spoke of business confidence: “Irrespective of investment benefits, unorthodox and outside-the-norm sale of public property does not contribute to business confidence. The integrity of institutions and established procedures need to be nurtured and sustained.”
He added: “It is not commendable for Malta to introduce within the EU legal environment a Media and Defamation Bill that derives its inspiration from legislation in countries which have extremely dubious free information credentials.”
Mr Muscat reported that the association had seen an increase in its membership and added that the MEA would remain committed to social dialogue, conducted through the Malta Council for Economic and Social Development.
The MEA was not holding back from direct meetings with the government and unions in its effort to resolve problems that periodically cropped up.
He singled out a current impasse regarding many features of the government’s proposed Equality Act 2015 and the Human Rights and Equality Commission Act 2015, both of which are “unacceptable” to employers. Mr Muscat said the MEA would, if required, be pushing its opposition to particular passages in the draft laws all the way to the law courts.
A current divergence with government on what he termed the proposed arbitrary and ill-advised raising of the minimum wage, was the subject of intense discussions and negotiations. Employers were proposing to the government and unions different and more effective interventions to ease poverty, he said.
The association commended the Ministry for Social Dialogue for adopting in a law many of the recommendations it made to tackle the disruptive problem of unregulated union recognition processes. Regulations were now in place allowing employers and unions to peacefully resolve recognition issues.
The MEA also expressed its hope that pending recommendations it made on a reform of the Industrial Tribunal would be considered, Mr Muscat said.