PN leader Simon Busuttil pledges ‘equal pay for equal work’
Opposition Leader Simon Busuttil yesterday announced another five proposals centred around employment: equal work for equal pay, gender equality, halting a General Workers’ Union programme, a return-to-work programme and a national plan for gender equality.
Dr Busuttil was speaking at a press conference in Mdina, with candidates Ian Vassallo, Janice Chetcuti, Chris Sansone and Alan Cutajar seated behind the Opposition Leader.
“A PN government is committing itself to equal pay for equal work. We will deliver on this principle. A worker who carries out the same work as another deserves the same pay. Not everybody realises that this is a persistent problem in Malta, and it causes a lot of hurt. We would like to address this once and for all.”
He said that it affects a lot of cleaners, helpers, carers and security workers. People in these sectors are often paid differently to others doing the exact same jobs, which is an injustice, he said.
The government would have to lead by example, and this starts in the public sector when government subcontracts from the private sector, he said.
Onto the second proposal, Dr Busuttil said, “the PN will stop the precarious working conditions in the project run by the General Workers’ Union. 600 workers who registered for work were removed from the unemployment registry and were placed on the GWU scheme. Under this scheme they are being paid a minimum wage while the GWU is making a profit from each and every one of the 600 workers.
“These workers are aware of the situation, and know that the GWU profits more than €1.5 million a year from them.
“We will stop the GWU from continuing this scheme. We would have the scheme led by JobsPlus, and wages would be paid directly to the workers.
“Like this we can ensure that these 600 workers, thanks to this decision, would take the profit that the GWU has made and split them up equally. This translates to €200 extra each month in their pockets”.
On the third proposal, Dr Busuttil spoke of a section of the population who have to stop working for a significant period of time due to illness.
He said that the PN would offer professional and meaningful support so that whenever these people feel that they are ready to re-enter the workforce, they will find all the necessary assistance.
“We are launching a dedicated scheme called return to work. This is a multidisciplinary scheme helping workers who have exited the labour market because of medical reasons, such as chronic illness, cancer, diabetes, MS, etc.
“We would allow these workers to focus on their health calmly, without the added pressure of how to re-enter the workforce when the time comes by offering professional help. This includes retraining, psychological assistance, social security contributions lost over the years when in unemployment.
“We believe that this scheme is important because such people have had their lives turned upside down because of some illness.”
The PN will also be addressing a situation where parents of children with disabilities find it difficult to work throughout summer, because currently most summer schools do not offer supervision for such children.
“In order to help parents of children with disabilities, we will provide special support through LSAs. This will allow children will disabilities to attend summer schools like any other child, as well as other programmes in summer for when the summer schools are closed.
“In this way, parents not knowing how to juggle work and their children in summer can rest easy through this programme because a professional is caring for their child.”
On gender equality, the PN is committing itself to launching a national plan: “In order to strengthen equality between women and men, a new national plan for gender equality will be launched. It will include controversial issues such as the gender pay gap.
“This gap exists today and must be addressed. In order to lead by example, we are committing ourselves to substantially increase the possibility of teleworking for government workers.
“We are also committing ourselves to, through appointments in the public sector, that government will ensure that at least half of the members on public boards are comprised of women.
“The government will urge the private sector to do the same, through encouraging teleworking and appointment of public boards.”
He said that both parties are presenting proposals, and he is not going to criticise the PL’s proposals, because he believes that both parties can present proposals that are of substance.
“What counts however are the foundations of a new government that wants to lead the country for the next five years.
“If the leaders do not have integrity, these proposals are in vain. We have seen this over the past four years; Joseph Muscat delivered what he never promised and did not deliver what he promised.”
Dr Busuttil confirmed that the sick leave proposal for parents with sick children who need to take leave will apply to fathers as well as mothers.
“For equality, it is not on to expect that the mother to stay home from work. We believe that measures such as this will lead to the employee not being forced to inadvertently abuse the system.”
GWU reacts
In a statement, the General Workers Union said the Opposition Leader is lying when he speaks about precarious work.
He knows that the scheme in question is the same one in use when the PN was in government.