The Union Haddiema Maghqudin, which is 44 years old today, this morning launched a document on its social vision in response to the government’s Vision 2015.
UHM general secretary Gejtu Vella said the government’s vision was exclusively based on the economy and the union felt it had to come up with its own social proposals as the economy could not be divorced from the social aspect.
The document tackles six sectors – education, health, the family, democratic institutions, the electronic revolution and better quality of life.
Proposals include that all workers should be entitled to a minimum of 120 hours of paid study leave spread over three years to attend courses.
Another is for public private partnerships to be formed between state and private hospitals to cut down on the waiting list for surgeries. The document proposes the setting up of four health care regional centres to supplement the services of the general hospital.
The government, the UHM said, should introduce tax relief benefit to families for each child.
It said that chairmen of regulatory bodies should be appointed by the President, acting on a resolution of Parliament, supported by the votes of at least two thirds of MPs.
The document says the Auditor General should have the power to refer to the police for further investigation cases where there is prima facie abuse of public funds. Moreover, all recommendations by the Ombudsman should be upheld.
Mr Vella cautioned against having a society that differentiated between those who had knowledge and those who did not. The government, he said, should support people with limited financial resources to ensure they had access to computers, internet and the necessary training.
Other proposals were for workers on the minimum wage to be encouraged to participate in apprenticeship schemes, training and courses to upgrade their skills and they would receive an allowance for doing so and for social benefits to be scaled down gradually rather than stopped abruptly when a person who receiving them went above the threshold.
The document proposes that to avoid the degrading abuse of human beings, all immigrants entitled to work should be registered with the Employment and Training Corporation.
Businesses seeking to recruit such workers had to seek approval from the ETC and the wages would be paid to the corporation which would act as a broker between the employer and migrants.
The document, available from the union, is up for discussion and comments should be mailed to 2015psv@uhm.org.mt .
The plan is to have a finalised document by October next year so that delegates would approve it in the general conference to be held then.
At the beginning of the launch, the union expressed solidarity with the European Trade Union Council, which has named today the European trade union day of action against austerity measures. Demonstrations are being held all over Europe.