Minimum wage: Social partners edge closer towards agreement

Social partners are edging closer towards an agreement on minimum wage, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said this evening.

Speaking to Maltese media in Brussels, Muscat announced that social partners were moving closer towards an agreement, which would be revealed in the coming days.

Civil society has long called for an increase in minimum wage, although this was met with opposition by the employers’ association and lack of consensus reigned within the Malta Council for Economic and Social Development.

Several meetings were held in an attempt to find a way forward and it now appears that a point of convergence was found.

Muscat also announced that the government would soon be unveiling a new investment set to attract “a considerable amount of jobs”.

‘Pay scandal: Clear case of fraud’

The Labour Party will be registering itself as a political party with the Electoral Commission as soon as changes to its statute are approved during the party’s annual general meeting in April.

Muscat told MaltaToday that the party was asked by the Electoral Commission to clarify what would happen to the party’s assets if the Labour Party were to be dissolved.

Muscat argued that the Electoral Commission should investigate the Nationalist Party over the issuance of false invoices: “There was an agreement for Silvio Debono to pay the salaries of certain individuals within the party, whilst invoices would be issued through the commercial company.

“If invoices were issued for services which were not rendered, then this is a clear case of fraud. The issuance of false invoices is also in breach of party financing law. The PN must say who issued this invoices, and to whom.”

The Nationalist Party has hit back at accusations of having flouted party financing rules, by accusing the Labour government of providing government jobs to its own party employees and executives.

Muscat insisted that these persons were being paid for work carried out as government employees.

“By the same argument, should I say that Simon Busuttil was paid €1 million to work for the PN?” he said, referring to the direct orders which Busuttil’s firm received under different PN administrations.