Malta Chamber of SMEs: COVID wage supplement needed till March
The wage supplement ought to be extended until at least March of next year, according to the Malta Chamber of SMEs, which also called for revision of the amount paid by the government for those forced to take the special quarantine leave. The CEO of the Malta Chamber of SMEs, Abigail Mamo, said when contacted on Thursday that while the extension of the wage supplement until January was a “step in the right direction”, businesses needed to plan ahead, so the wage supplement should be extended until at least the end of the first quarter of the new year. She called for a holistic plan that would look at how the COVID-19 pandemic was affecting particular sectors which required more help than others. A change of heart Earlier this month, Mamo said she saw no need for the wage supplement to be extended beyond the end of the year and disagreed with the Nationalist Party’s calls for an extension to March. However, her position has since changed because the infection numbers and the effect the pandemic was having on businesses was now “completely different”. “We need to assess the situation and come up with a holistic plan. Is the wage supplement still enough? Do we need to revise it...