The social partners’ top three priorities

Scicluna says budget to focus on bettering quality of life

Today is budget day, which means that the Finance Minister will tonight lay out the government’s financial plan for the coming year.

Edward Scicluna has said that the budget will focus on improving the quality of people’s lives. This will be done, in part, through the improvement of roads and traffic management.

The government has reached cruising speed but now has to look to the future and the challenges ahead, including property, transport and the environment.

Scicluna will head to Parliament and start reading out his budget speech at around 6.30pm.

As usual, this will be followed by a reaction by the Opposition leader and a more formal press conference by the Prime Minister, Deputy PM and Finance Minister later on.

All eyes will be on Scicluna, with many eager to see what he has in store for the coming year, particularly when it comes to taxes, business incentives, family-friendly measures and new projects. Many will also be eager to see whether the price of cigarettes will go up again, and if the price of fuel will go down. PM Joseph Muscat yesterday announced that the price of soft drinks will go up as part of a bottle return scheme (see other story).

People will also be eagerly waiting for a decision on public holidays that fall on a weekend. The government has pledged to give these back, saying that this is not a question of if, but of when and how, but has found stiff opposition from employers and some unions.

The budget measures will be covered extensively on www.independent.com.mt and in tomorrow’s newspaper.

Over the past few weeks the social partners have presented their own budget proposals – measures they would like to see the government take on board and include in tonight’s budget speech – but not all of these will make the cut. We asked the social partners to list the three proposals that they would most like to see included in Scicluna’s goodie bag.

U}M - Voice of the Workers

• That all workers have their work contract registered online. This would remove abuse on work conditions. • The creation of a cooperative for workers in professional services and a cooperative for workers providing healthcare services to patients. • Adequate and sustainable pensions. Giving importance to second-pillar pensions.

General Workers Union

• That the government implements the request we have been making for nine consecutive years and gives back to workers public holidays that fall on weekends. The union has been making this request ever since these public holidays were taken away by a PN administration. • That the government accepts its proposal to increase pensions, which would allow more pensioners to benefit from the economic expansion and improve their quality of life. • We also believe that the time has come for the government to accept our request and address the excessive rent prices.

GRTU

• Addressing the Human Resource crisis by facilitating the sourcing of third-country nationals and drastically reducing bureaucracy. • Addressing the unfairness caused by excise tax that is placing Maltese businesses at a disadvantage. • Reducing the corporate tax on businesses in view of the current surplus

Malta Employers Association

The MEA says that, overall, its proposals are based on the concept of a quid pro quo, meaning that any measures that will incur a cost to employers have to be balanced by compensatory measures to maintain competitiveness. This could apply to the public holidays issue, for example.

• Better management of Human Resources in the public sector. The government should free as much resources from the public to the private sector and restructure its systems to encourage more people to take up professions in which there is a shortage. • The engagement of persons in positions of trust. While it is understandable that any party in government needs to appoint persons in positions of trust, the number of such appointments should be subject to a ceiling. These appointments should not be perceived to be the result of political favours.

MPs should not hold positions of trust as this may be in conflict with their duties in parliament. There should be full public disclosure of contracts, remuneration conditions, including bonuses and perks, of persons occupying positions of trust.

All persons occupying a position of trust with public entities and who have not been employed through a recruitment process should be subject to a periodic audit by an independent board to justify their position. The board shall include representatives from the opposition. As with any private sector company, they will report on time spent, activities and results achieved. Key positions should be approved by a two thirds parliamentary majority. • Government policies and fiscal management should ensure that the fiscal surplus is sustained even if the economy slows down, through curtailing recurrent expenditure which should not be sustained or increased at the cost of suppressing capital expenditure.

Malta Chamber of Commerce Enterprise and Industry

• No surprises. The government should refrain from taking business by surprise by introducing unforeseen taxes and burdens on business. • A reduction in energy rates for businesses which are still the most expensive in the EU. • An improvement in the systems in place to facilitate the employment of third-country nationals.

For.U.M

• An urgent consideration of allowing schools more autonomy in administering budgets while at the same time injecting more funds into schools to cater for provision of resources, upkeep and repairs. This measure would empower schools to take locally based decisions according to their needs. All educators providing services in schools need to receive compensation according to their qualifications and expertise. This includes personnel who are providing temporary or part-time services or services in pre-school and after school programmes. The State should provide resources including technology to all schools as the gap between different sectors is widening and a considerable group of students is falling behind. • A comprehensive approach to prevention of non-communicable diseases, with universal access to preventive services. Our submission also calls for that population to receive health promotion and preventive assessments by qualified health providers and an inter-professional approach. An upstream and more integrated approach to health care would anchor it in primary care, with multidisciplinary teams providing direct care and coordinating system navigation for clients whose needs must be met in other parts of the health system. • Allocating resources to the right sectors and right providers is crucial. The chronic shortage of nurses needs to be addressed adequately and appropriately. Evidence shows that proper registered nurse staffing and fully utilising their expertise can save the system money while ensuring positive patient outcomes. Incorrect staffing leads to high workload, lack of work-life balance, high overtime, high sick leave, increased risk to patient safety and poorer patient outcomes. These are expensive issues and they are avoidable when staffing is done right.

Malta Union of Teachers

• An urgent consideration of allowing schools more autonomy in administering budgets while at the same time injecting more funds into schools to cater for provision of resources, upkeep and repairs. This measure would empower schools to take local based decisions according to their needs. • All educators providing services in schools need to receive compensation according to their qualifications and expertise. This includes personnel who are providing temporary or part time services or services in pre-school and after school programmes. • The State should provide resources including technology to all schools as the gap between different sectors is widening and a considerable group of students is falling behind.

Gozo Tourism Association

• An amendment to the present accommodation VAT (7%) rate on Gozo to mitigate seasonality as follows: November to March (3%), April to October (7%). The VAT rate for other tourism related services on Gozo, like restaurants, diving and transport should be reduced from 18% to 13%. • A tailor-made Tourism Investment Support Scheme (TISS), to entice local entrepreneurs to upgrade their Gozitan tourist establishments. It can be financed and piloted by the Ministry for Gozo in collaboration with the Ministry for Tourism, together with the active participation of GTA. • All types of accommodation units with a swimming-pool and which are covered by an MTA operating license should be exempted from the 15% increase on swimming pools license, as announced in the 2015 Budget.

Din l-Art }elwa

• A review of the FAR policy and a master plan for high-rise buildings in Malta, and the reduction of the current zones to one or two maximum. • Stopping the destruction of our traditional and vernacular buildings and reintroducing schemes such as Irrestawra Darek, the Balcony Scheme of a few years ago, incentives to restore landscapes which have been disturbed and the adequate re-use of existing buildings and built areas rather than the construction of new buildings in virgin land. • The extension and creation of Nature Parks in Malta.

Costs incurred by employers as a result of any measure have to be balanced by compensatory measures in order to maintain competitiveness - MEA