An urgent meeting for social partners about the new hike in water and electricity bills will be held in the second week of the New Year, according to General Workers' Union general secretary Tony Zarb.
The chairman of the Malta Council for Economic and Social Development Sonny Portelli, however, said the exact date had not yet been established.
Nonetheless, Mr Zarb said calling a meeting in three weeks' time did not make sense because the new water and electricity tariffs were going to have a bad effect on people's standard of living.
He said the social partners were united in their call for an urgent meeting but "it seems certain people are more interested in attending parties and drinks rather than meet to discuss something which is going to affect workers and their families, as well as employers".
Meeting in the second week of January would be "superfluous" because the new tariff regime would have kicked in.
He once again accused the government of undermining social dialogue by holding separate talks with employers on the new energy rates.
Over the past few days, Finance Minister Tonio Fenech had held talks separately with the Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry, the Chamber of Small and Medium Enterprises - GRTU, the Malta Employers' Association and the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association.
Meanwhile, according to Eurostat figures issued last week, Malta placed first in energy prices for industry but 17th in the price of energy for households. These figures show that Malta charges €15.35 for every 100 kilowatt-hour for households and 35c more for industrial accounts.
The €10 million one-time energy rebate which families will be receiving should greatly lessen the impact of the new tariffs on them.
The GRTU, however, insists that the price of energy for households is the highest in the EU.
"The question is not whether the Maltese rank first, second or third but that, given the level of average incomes of Maltese households and the level of average profitability of most enterprises, the tariffs approved by the Malta Resources Authority are excessively high and place most Maltese households and most Maltese enterprises in a very bad situation when compared with the rest of Europe," the GRTU said.