Party Leaders stress need to address precarious jobs

All three party leaders mentioned precarious work as one of the main issues that need to be tackled during a meeting of the Forum for Maltese Unions earlier today. They also stressed the importance of trade unions in ensuring workers' rights were protected.

Alternattiva Demokratika leader Arnold Cassola also stressed the importance of Trade Unions’ roles in addressing this issue and encouraging the best quality of life for workers.

Cassola said that the recent disagreements between trade unions within the same spaces had only proved to be detrimental to workers and the general public. He said that AD believed that trade union policies should be revised to recognize the presence of more than one union in the same company. He added that conferences of the sort were important to ensure that they worked to serve their purpose better.

Opposition leader Simon Busuttil stressed the party’s commitment to ensure that national wealth would effect all the members of society, in his speech. He proposed a focus on three main aspects for the trade unions; namely investing in new markets for increased job opportunities, battling precarious work and better pays for the people.

“The rate of pay-rises fell from the period between March 2008 and March 2013, where we could see a rise of €500 every year in average wages. From March 2013 to December 2014, however, the rate fell to €187 a year,” he said referring to statistics from the labour force survey.

Busuttil added that Unions played a very important role in making sure that workers are represented well and that the opposition would continue to push for the best possible rights for workers.

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat also addressed the unions present, and said that figures had shown that the economy and the quality of the jobs created had improved greatly during the past two years.

“One of the greatest achievements of this government has been the shattering of the stigma that those registered as unemployed are doing so out of choice in order to benefit from various benefit schemes,” Muscat said, using youth guarantees as an example.

“Young people who leave school are no longer allowed to apply for benefits unless they are under some sort of training scheme,” Muscat said explaining that 75% of those benefitting from the scheme had subsequently been hired permanently by the companies offering them the training.

Muscat added that although studies had revealed that around half of the newly generated jobs were going to foreigners, the reasons were mostly tied to specialisations that Maltese workers didn’t have, and that in cases where it was a question of exploitation, the government would continue to do its best to address these issues.

Muscat also urged trade unions to resolve their issues amongst themselves as much as possible and he encouraged the forum to take on a proactive role in leading unions through these discussions or disputes.