Malta Employers Association

Joe Farrugia, Director General

We think that this year’s Budget is one for continuity and stability as it links with those of previous years. The introduction of the Active Labour Market Policies is very important as is the employability index which will help students when they come to choose their career paths.

Fiscal measures for apprenticeships are also important as is the introduction of the youth entrepreneurship scheme which was an idea originally floated by the previous administration. We do not agree with the measure to taper social benefits for those who find employment. We don’t agree in principle because we believe that that once you find a job, the benefits should stop.

The Government should have introduced a minimum rate for outsourced work, which would have been a measure which would have addressed employment abuses.

The budget aims to address concretely the national deficit and a number of measures aim at increasing the number of productive hours through a higher participation rate of labour in the economy. Free child care, subsidised child care in private institutions and further tax incentives to families with children are positive but will be effective only if they are complemented by efforts to incentivise business activity, which will generate demand for labour and productive employment.

Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry

David Curmi, President

We welcome the introduction of voluntary third pillar pensions to supplement the current pensions system and also the continuation of income tax burden reduction. While we agree with shifting the tax burden from direct to indirect taxes, we are worried that Malta has a poor track record in enforcing payment of indirect taxes because the country still lacks a fair and effective structure for market surveillance.

We expected more measures to address Malta’s bottlenecks for growth and the facilitation of export-led activity.

We still believe that the formula used to calculate the cost-of-living allowance needs to be reviewed because we need a system which is more sustainable. We need to see electricity tariffs lowered also for commercial users with immediate effect through wider applicability of night tariffs and bulk discounts.

We also see as positive the action to support small and micro enterprises, the reduction of bureaucracy and initiatives that facilitate access to finance.

Chamber for Small and Medium Enterprise

Paul Abela, President

One of the strongest measures we saw in this Budget was the changes to the Value Added Tax legislation. There are businessmen in jail because of this law and we hope that this will change. We are also happy that the Government is finally acknowledging the unfair competition local businesses face from importation of products without the payment of eco-tax and other taxes. We hope to see this clampdown is enforced.

We are also happy to see the re-introduction of the MicroInvest scheme and the Government’s intention to give a stronger voice to the Malta Council for Economic and Social Development. We agree with this but the MCESD needs to be restructured to be able to reach this aim.

Union Ħaddiema Magħqudin

Josef Vella, General Secretary

The UĦM has its pulse on the country’s and workers’ needs as many of the measures mentioned in the Budget were actually this union’s ideas, especially though the Active Labour Market Policy and the Jobs+ report. We saw measures to make work pay whereby partners of women who enter the Labour market would be able to continue to pay under the married computation which would see them saving around €800 a year.

Another positive measure we expected to see was a €900 payment for those on the minimum wage who switch from inactivity to activity on the Labour market. We should incentivise those who enter the Labour market.

Regarding pensions, we were disappointed to see that we have not yet introduced the second pillar pensions. We are the last EU country to introduce this. We expected to see the Government committing itself to a working group to start seeing how this could be introduced.

As a union, we are also happy that our three proposals on cooperatives were taken on board and are also satisfied to see that our proposals on child care centres were also accepted.

Forum Unions Maltin

Paul Pace, President

As president of Forum I think the Budget was positive but I don’t share the same feeling when speaking on behalf of the Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses.

There were incentives to create jobs, tax reductions and an increase in funds for the education sector. These are all very positive measures and we also agree with the clampdown on tax evasion, an idea which Forum had floated. We also agree with efforts taken by the Government to save Air Malta.

But from the nurses’ point of view, I cannot help but be disappointed with the 40-bed increase at Mater Dei Hospital. This means that the saga of having patients on beds in corridors will not only continue but the problem will grow.

There was also no mention of additional beds in elderly homes. The Budget did not address the long waiting lists of elderly people in need of long term care which shows the Government’s lack of insight in this sector.

General Workers’ Union

Tony Zarb, General Secretary

The Budget was a fair exercise with a social soul which helped everyone, especially the weakest. It promotes work and supports those who want to work. It is a Budget built on social justice, aimed to boost economic growth and fiscal stability while fighting precarious work, waste and abuse.

There are good incentives for whoever wants to work. There are a number of measures that the General Workers’ Union had proposed, both pre-budget as well as prior to the last general election. Among them are the reduction in water and electricity tariffs, investment in education, health and the environment.

There are also strong measures to effectively address the problem of precarious working conditions which is something the union has been insisting on for years. The GWU is looking forward to collaborating not only with the Government but with all social partners for this phenomenon to be eradicated once and for all.