Prime Minister Joseph Muscat. Photo: Chris Sant FournierA total of 350 people are seeking a job as petrol pump attendants when vacancies usually number five or six a year.
This was just one of a number of ploys resorted to by those who wanted to continue receiving unemployment benefits without ever working, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said yesterday, warning that it would no longer be tolerated.
He said one of the measures of the new employment policy unveiled yesterday was aimed at plugging such loopholes and people registering for a certain type of job would have to accept doing something that was related.
“We want seriousness and we want the jobs we are creating to be filled by the Maltese,” Dr Muscat told youths gathered in Pembroke for an event held to launch the European Parliament campaign by the Labour Youth Forum with the theme Charge the Vote.
It will no longer be tolerated
He said the government would be “generous” with employers by paying the full maternity leave on their behalf in return for a small increase in the national insurance premium. It was also being generous with minimum wage earners by topping up their income.
“This may cost us from an electoral viewpoint but this is one of the strongest reform packages that will give a social aspect to our labour market while making it more flexible and inclusive. This will, in turn, lead to a more competitive country with a better economy,” Dr Muscat said.
“We may suffer because this is what people have become used to. But it is not fair on those who genuinely want to work and who find the system being clogged by these people who are not really interested in working.
“It is not fair that your taxes go to people who do not deserve it,” he added.
The measures announced in the new employment policy were welcomed by unions and employers, he said.
Turning to civil rights introduced in the first year of a new Labour government, Dr Muscat said the country was changed from one that was “arch-conservative” to a place that was ahead of other larger states.