The time had come for another attempt at a social pact to be made, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi said this evening.
Addressing the general conference of the Forum Unions Maltin, Dr Gonzi said this was a challenging time for the country because of the recession.
An attempt at reaching an agreement and drawing up a social pact was made five years ago when Malta was at a crossroad and soon after the country had joined the EU.
Agreement had not been reached for an inch. The time had now come to try again. The national interest had to come first, it was true that there were many challenges but there were also opportunities.
Earlier, Labour leader Joseph Muscat had pointed out that four of every 10 students in Malta did not continue with their education after secondary school. This, he said, was the highest in the EU which had an average of one student in every 10.
Dr Gonzi said the rate of increase in the number of people continuing their studies was an achievement, but more needed to be done.
The present 75 percent rate was targeted to increase to 85 percent in the near future with the use of stipends and by guiding people towards careers the country needed, he said.
Dr Gonzi spoke about social dialogue and how it improved over the years, the MCESD law and the tripartite model and referred to the Forum’s request to join MCESD.
He said that the tripartite model of MCESD was built by consensus so Forum could only form part of MCESD by consensus.
Dr Gonzi also mentioned the public service collective agreement signed five years ago, covering a six year period. He said that negotiations for another agreement giving importance to the national priorities would start soon.
Dr Muscat said that politicians and trade unionists should always be ready to take action to improve the people’s quality of life.
Such action could be for the cost of living not to continue reducing the value of wages, for taxes on employment to be reduced and for investors not to have to face unnecessary bureaucracy.
Action could also be taken for more students to learn to read and write, to have more technically able students and for more students to continue studying after university.
Action could be taken for better healthcare and for the government to be accountable and make the best use of public finances.
Dr Muscat said that the Maltese education system was the one most based on examinations among EU countries. Maltese students had to sit for three times more examinations than other European students and this was creating tension and stress on students.
Unfortunately, many students failed because they did not learn the basics of Maltese, English and mathematics in primary school. This was a personal tragedy for those affected and also a national one.
When it came to health, Dr Muscat said that there should be a maximum waiting period for operations after which the state should be bound to take corrective measures.
The meeting appointed MUT president John Bencini, president of the Forum.
He spoke on rumours that the water and electricity tariffs would again be increased and said that these were very damaging.
Mr Bencini noted that while energy prices in the Eurozone had decreased by 10 percent, in Malta these rose by four percent. Further increases would mean discouragement, frustration and negativity.
He called for social dialogue to be real and for an open mind and promised that the Forum would be proactive.