Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1527863
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 13 OCTOBER 2024 5 INTERVIEW The following are excerpts from the interview. The full interview can be found on maltatoday.com.mt as well as our Facebook and Spotify pages. PHOTOS: JAMES BIANCHI / MALTA TODAY Government has already indicat- ed it will use the next budget to put more money in people's pock- ets; adjustments to the income tax bands are being promised. What is the direction the UĦM would like to see taken in the next budget? The UĦM had asked for the tax bands to be tweaked but more importantly we need to see what will be achieved by this. […] The middle class is feeling that work is not delivering its worth. But we have to ask ourselves whether these tax incentives will help towards achieving a national demographic strategy. […] We used to speak of a birth rate of 1.8, 1.4 and it's always reducing; if we allow the situation to persist, we might not have local workers. How can we incentivise people to ensure they are not disheartened from having children? How can we incentivise young people who want to leave Malta to stay here; or encourage those who left to come back? […] We should not simply contend ourselves with cutting taxes but do so with a purpose and in line with a chosen direction. The population grew rapidly and in a short time span because of foreign workers. The government is now trying to close the tap but has the economy reached a point where it is impossible to say we do not need foreign workers? …We cannot simply stop bringing over foreign workers or kick them out as some argue. This is not something where you wake up one fine morning and take a decision. These decisions require a plan. This is why we speak of a national demographic strategy. We need to know what the carrying capacity of this country is. We must decide what economy we want… There are people who are doing well but is everybody doing well? We have to ask ourselves what economic plan we are going to adopt… The cake has grown and part of the reason it grew was because of the foreign workers who filled gaps in several sectors… Foreign- ers are a vulnerable sector when it comes to the unequal distribu- tion of wealth; some of the wages they are paid and work conditions they endure are pitiful. We have the employer relations board, which I form part of, and we are discussing ways and means how to ensure that workers performing the same job are paid equally, irrespective of their nationality. This is easy to address legally. What is more difficult is having an economic plan because it also means improving quality and that requires us to play a different, more difficult game. It is easier to have an economy based on quantity than on quality… it requires more reskilling, more training, better skills. All this cannot be achieved at the touch of a button but requires a plan that determines what type of economy we want, what type of workers are required and how we should train them… There are public sector jobs where more workers are required like teachers and nurses and yet you complain of having a bloated public sector. Do you think there too many workers employed with government? If government workers are employed in unproductive jobs they are a burden. We hear stories of people who spoke to ministers and were offered jobs in areas of the public sector where they were not needed. There is nothing wrong to have more teachers if they are needed because that is productive work. In the health sector the UHM represents the largest cohort of workers across various specialities, in each of these areas more staff is needed. Why aren't we guiding our young people to choose these careers? Do you agree with a human re- source audit of government jobs to determine where the gaps are and which areas are bloated? What we need is politicians to stop trying to win votes by doing favours. Politicians should win votes on the basis of proposals that make sense for the good of the country and by showing their capability to implement change. […] This country has always revered politicians but we have come to a point where even to obtain a driving licence people have resorted to ministerial intervention and this is causing a state of helplessness. The Chamber of Commerce com- plains that the public sector is poaching talent that could be put to better use in the private sector. When the Labour Party was elected to government in 2013, a couple of years into the mandate, human resources managers in the private sector used to call the union daily, complaining of workers who would have resigned to join the government and the ministries. The private sector experienced two years of panic until the government came up with the recipe of importing foreign labour. Employers were enticed because foreign workers could be paid lower wages than Maltese counterparts. This model was liked and let us be honest, everyone rode the wave, including the private sector. […] Nobody can enter government and flip the switch to stop foreign workers. It does not happen this way. We require a plan that should start by incentivising Maltese people to remain in Malta… this country lacks a good quality of life. Despite all that is said, Malta has the strongest economic growth in the EU and practically full em- ployment. The headline figures point to relative success. We learnt to do our accounts, which is only part of the story… Knowing how to do the accounts and registering surpluses does not mean the direction is correct. An economic plan is much more than simple numbers on a balance sheet. It is true, we do not have unemployment but it is the natural outcome if everyone who went to register for a job was engaged in one scheme or another. However, are these workers in productive jobs? […] I will be happy with full employment if government employees constitute some 23% of the workforce and the private sector fighting for the rest. That is the full employment we should aspire for. What is the UHM's position on mandatory union membership? Our idea was to focus on low income workers. We do not believe there should be a law obliging everyone to join a union. First of all, I do not have a principle to back that and I do not have the capacity to deal with it. If all of a sudden, the full gamut of 320,000 workers asks to join a union, none of the unions have the capacity to deal with such an influx. But more importantly, I do not think someone who earns €60,000 needs the UHM… I have in mind low income workers and want to give them a taste of what it means to be part of a union and how they can benefit from improved wages. […] Low income workers are a vulnerable category and it is they who require protection through mandatory union membership… The UHM has a proposal to oblige free riders – workers who are not unionised but still benefit from conditions negotiated by a union – to either join a union or else pay a fee that goes into a central fund. Don't people have a right not to join a union? Nowhere in the free market do you have the concept of someone not paying for a service but when it comes to unionisation, someone who is not unionised ends up benefitting from the same package of work benefits negotiated by the union as the paid-up member. This a polite way of diluting trade union strength. […] The UHM is arguing that once a worker is benefitting from collective bargaining they should pay the union's membership fee, or that of any other union thus protecting the individual's freedom of choice, or if they do not want to be part of any union, pay an equivalent amount into a central fund. [Free riders] cannot hide behind some principle simply not to pay a small fee. All we are talking about is a fee that is maybe €4-a-month.