Josef Bugeja, Secretary General of the General Workers Union

Mr Bugeja said the answer to the first question was simple: “All of them. This is because every one of our proposals is based on the principle of social justice. All proposals are to improve the quality of life of workers, families, and pensioners. But if I had to choose I’d like to see included the proposals we put forward about the introduction of Medical Leave; the one that calls for the principle of Equal Pay for Work of Equal Value to be guaranteed for all contract workers that are assigned to work in companies in the private sector, because this will eradicate precarious work; our pensions-related proposals; and obviously that regarding the public holidays that fall on weekends.”

Mr Bugeja believes that in the current economic scenario the budget can address the issues of poverty, the hardships faced by precarious workers and improve the living conditions of those that still are not experiencing the benefits of Malta’s economic growth and success.

On proposals by other MCESD members, the GWU chief said he would like to see proposals that are intended to improve the quality of life for Maltese workers, pensioners and society included in next year’s budget.

Mr Bugeja said there is no denying that we are facing a traffic problem. “There is an urgent need to work on multiple solutions to solve this problem, such as better traffic management, upgrading of the existent infrastructure, the introduction of incentives to promote car-pooling for example, alternative means of mass transport and also an investment in education to improve the driving behaviour.”