The General Workers’ Union wants a one-off increase in the minimum wage and the minimum pension, saying these were “inadequate” and people were unable to make ends meet.

Union president Victor Carachi said that the increase should follow a scientific study on when, and how, it should happen without damaging the economy and the country’s competitiveness.

The increase would be over and above the standard cost-of-living-adjustment and studies should be conducted by experts commissioned by the Malta Council for Economic and Social Development and implemented in consultation with social partners.

Mr Carachi made the appeal in the traditional message for Workers’ Day, being celebrated today.

Such social problems need direct social and educational interventions

He noted that water and electricity bills as well as the prices of several essential products and services had increased under the previous government. Social problems had multiplied over the past few years and contributed to poverty “after several years where poverty was nonexistent”.

“Such social problems need direct social and educational interventions.

“There is also a need for more social benefits, paid for by the State, aimed at better managing these concerns,” he said.

The proposed increase, he added, would encourage families receiving a minimum wage to keep their children in school and not send them to work prematurely.

He praised “the present government” for working to attract foreign investment but noted that for wealth to filter down, it was essential that wages increased at the same rate and that wealth was created.

Expressing satisfaction that action was being taken to eradicate precarious employment, Mr Carachi said some employers still believed that observing labour laws and paying the minimum wage would eradicate precarious work and the poverty linked to it.

“Such thinking is far from reality,” he said, quoting from a study by Caritas on the inadequacy of the minimum wage and the minimum pension.