Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1498713
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 7 MAY 2023 8 INTERVIEW Raphael Vassallo rvassallo@mediatoday.com.mt 'In the name of Labour' In his Labour Day speech, Prime Minister Abela repeat- edly affirmed the PL's creden- tials as the only real 'worker's party' in Malta. Yet former leader Alfred Sant had earli- er pointed out: "We must not forget the foreign and Maltese workers on a miserable pay. It is a truth that our economy is dependent on low wages." Do you yourself feel that Labour has 'forgotten' an entire cate- gory of worker, in Malta: i.e., the (mostly foreign) contin- gent which is 'underpaid, and over-exploited'? If I'm not mistaken, in his speech the Prime Minister ac- tually referred to the 'ALL the workers of Malta'; and only later alluded to 'the workers of Malta and Gozo'. So he didn't 'forget' about those work- ers; they were included in his speech... Fair enough: but apart from that token mention, what is the Labour government ac- tually DOING to address the conditions those workers find themselves in? Let's start with this. When we undertake reforms concerning employment –about the licensing of building contractors, for instance (which is very relevant, because many foreign workers are employed in the construction sector); or even in the ongoing consultation process, about reforming the OHSA)... in all those cases, the reforms we are talking about will impact ALL Malta's workers: including foreigners. And I specifically mention the Occupational Health and Safe- ty Authority, because I recent- ly got to know – from a Syrian friend of mine, who is one of the local community leaders – that there are meetings cur- rently under way, between the OHSA and the Syrian commu- nity, specifically about improv- ing the conditions of work in these sectors. And I'm happy to see that this consultation is taking place, because I also believe it is one of the ways we can assist in the integration process. This type of public dialogue is, in fact, one of the ways we can educate on the subject of 'best practic- es'; and so on... But this 'public consultation' is between the Syrian com- munity, and the OHSA. What I'm asking you, however, is whether the Labour Party it- self is doing anything about the situation. For instance: how do you respond to criti- cism that the Labour govern- ment's economic model is it- self based on 'cheap labour'? I wouldn't call it 'cheap la- bour', no. Let's take a step back, and compare today's economic performance with that of pre- 2013. Before, we had a situa- tion where many businesses and work places were shutting down, leaving thousands of workers jobless. Why? Because of a certain 'something' that all the rest of Europe is now talk- ing about; but which has mean- while been forgotten, here in Malta. Energy poverty... I assume you're referring to Labour's promises of cheaper energy before the 2013 elec- tion, right? Yes. And to give you an idea of the sort of difference it made: look at what's happen- ing in other European coun- tries, right now. As you know, there are many Maltese people who live and work in Brussels, nowadays; some of whom earn rather decent salaries, even by [Belgian] standards. Today, however, those salaries are no longer availing them: because their energy bills have more than tripled, over the last few months. And you'll be amazed, at the impact this has had on their quality of life. Now: Malta was in a compa- rable situation, before 2013. But from then on – because the Labour government reduced the cost of electricity; among various other policies aimed at raising the local standard of living - the economy started to grow... ... and so, too, did the popu- lation. Wasn't it also one of Labour's policies, to 'grow the economy, by growing the pop- ulation'? Yes; and we faced (and still face) a lot of criticism, to the effect that this was some kind of 'bubble', that was soon going to 'burst'. But the reality, is that this economic model contin- ued to be sustained, over the year: by the government, yes; but primarily, I would say, by the workers of Malta and Gozo. Because our economic success is ultimately down to the hard work of the people. I'm not so sure how much of a 'success' it really is, though. Wouldn't you agree that our rapid population expan- sion has also given rise to a whole new class of under- paid, over-exploited workers (hence, 'cheap labour')? My answer to that, is the same as whenever Far Right movements - or the Nationalist Party; as was the case with Ber- nard Grech's speech last week – complain that 'there are too many foreigners in Malta'. Sorry, but... what do these people want, at the end of the day? That the Maltese econ- omy grinds to a halt? That it starts to stagnate again, and slide backwards? Or that we continue assisting families, and businesses, to keep the economic wheel turning? Now: our answer is that we continue growing our econo- my, whilst also improving the quality of life of the people (ALL the people) of Malta and Gozo. And this has led to a sit- uation where a large number of businesses are now telling us – and I'm surprised that Bernard Grech hasn't already heard this; seeing as he is paying to so many visits to Maltese busi- nesses, these days – that 'they can't find enough workers, to meet their needs'. So the question, at this stage, should not be: 'do we want to continue growing, economi- cally... or do we want to start shrinking instead?' Because God forbid we were to start sliding backwards, today (with everything else that is going on right now in Europe, and the rest of the world...) What should the question be, then? 'What sort of economic growth do we want'? 'Which The Labour Party has recently come in for some scathing criticism, over having 'abandoned its Socialist roots'. But its CEO RANDOLPH DEBATTISTA insists that the PL remains the only true 'voice of the worker', in spite of everything