Increase the minimum wage – Joe Pace Ross
The top item on our social agenda should be the revision of the COLA mechanism which establishes the yearly increase in wages, including the minimum wage. This mechanism, established 32 years ago, is now out of date. It does not factor in items that have become essential. Perhaps the UĦM Voice of The Workers and the other unions could give us an update of the status of the talks – if any – that may be taking place. I direct my question to the UĦM because employers, who are also represented on the Malta Council for Economic and Social Development (MCESD), have already stated that the mechanism should not be changed. The employers’ position is quite understandable since they will have to pay for the inevitable wage increases. The government is also in no hurry to revise the mechanism because it would have to fork out more funds to finance the cost of an overmanned public sector. On their part, officials of the General Workers’ Union stated last summer that the COLA mechanism “worked well in the past and should not be changed”. This does not bode well for the imminent tug-of-war between employers and employees. Whatever figures one chooses to look at, the gap, or, rather, the...