GRTU says PL’s public holidays promise is premature

The Labour Party electoral promise to give back to the people holidays that fall on weekends is premature, the Malta Chamber of Small and Medium Enterprises (GRTU) believes.

Launching the first round of PL electoral pledges on Tuesday, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said another PL government would consider giving these holidays back as additional leave days or introduce the concept of bank holidays. He said this initiative would give back four or five days off for Maltese workers in a year.

Workers stopped receiving extra leave days to make up for public holidays that fell on weekends back in 2005, against the backdrop of an economic slump. It was said, back then, that this was a temporary measure.

A GRTU spokesperson said yesterday that the chamber was concerned over this particular promise.

“This condition changed specifically to make enterprises more competitive. It is still unclear how government intends to compensate enterprises to maintain their competitiveness but such a commitment is premature without having conducted an economic impact assessment.”

The spokesperson said that this proposal might not be ideal especially in the light of the struggles enterprises are encountering due to shortages in labour force and the cost of employment.

GRTU did, however, welcome the tax cuts announced by Dr Muscat.

“We believe that this will result in an increase in disposable income. GRTU however feels that this is not enough.

One of our proposals in the manifesto will be to reduce the tax rate on business. We are strong believers in the principle the government itself mentioned, surplus should be redistributed, and our businesses have contributed to this surplus and they should benefit from lower tax rates,” the spokesperson said.

On the increase of pensions, GRTU feels that the increase should have come into force with the revision of the minimum wage. “Pensioners are those more exposed to the risk of poverty and government should give an example and shoulder the responsibility like employers did.”

This reaction by GRTU follows the Chamber of Commerce’s strong condemnation to the PL promise of public holidays. In a statement, the chamber said that the matter is a closed case.

When Prime Minister Joseph Muscat was yesterday asked to comment on this reaction by Chamber, he said that it was the PN government who had decided, without prior consultation, to abolish these holidays.

MHRA calls on politicians to be responsible in their electoral pledges

The Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association (MHRA) appealed to the leadership structures of both the major political parties to be responsible in their pledges to the electorate. MHRA stated that the electoral pledges must be sustainable and not used as goodies to simply lure the electorate.

The economic success achieved to date has been remarkable and MHRA believes that the benefits of such achievements should be fairly distributed amongst society. Getting here however wasn’t an easy journey and cannot be taken for granted.