Election Desk: Not all workers are created equal

Welcome to the Election Desk. This is where we round up the major headlines of the last 24 hours, together with some of the more light-hearted and funnier sides of the campaign trail.

The politics of exclusion

Robert Abela spent the weekend doing something a bit unusual for a politician: he boasted about who won’t benefit from one of his party’s flagship promises.

During a couple of Labour events, Abela proudly revealed that Labour had spent months working with legal and technical experts to find a way to exclude around 100,000 foreign workers from the party's €1,000 "super bonus". Only workers who have been in Malta for five years will be eligible.

This is Labour's answer to criticism that the PN's own financial pledges would benefit foreign workers too. Labour's position is that finding a legal workaround to exclude them makes the party far better than the PN. Whether you’ll celebrate this workaround depends on which of Malta's 300,000 workers you happen to be.

It’s an awkward hypocrisy, too. Most Maltese workers probably have much more in common with foreign workers than they ever will with Robert Abela or any other local politician. But I guess the politicians benefit far more if they seem like the more relatable demographic.

Abela sought to compare Labour's monetary benefits for workers with those of the PN

Mother's Day policies

The PN picked Mother’s Day to announce some family-oriented pledges. In a campaign event in Mġarr, Alex Borg pledged to extend maternity leave from 18 weeks to six months on full pay, increase paternity leave to four weeks, and introduce 15 days of separate, state-funded paid leave for parents whose children fall sick. The sick-child leave can be used as half-days, full days or consecutive periods.

Borg said families should not be punished because children fall sick, and that quality of life should not be measured only through economic figures. He also used the occasion to reiterate the PN's support for IVF, promising to reduce bureaucracy and costs for couples seeking treatment.

It is a substantial package. Whether it's fully costed is a question for another day (and a question Labour will undoubtedly put to them too).

Borg also revealed his mother was not keen on him going into politics but supported him nonetheless. Photo: Partit Nazzjonalista

ADPD revives the four-day work week pledge

The Greens were also feeling a little maternal on Sunday. ADPD chairperson Sandra Gauci and deputy chairperson Melissa Bagley presented the party’s family policy proposals, calling for longer parental leave and more support for parents of sick children.

This all sounds rather familiar to what the PN proposed. What sounds even more familiar is this: ADPD wants a national conversation on a four-day work week. Remember that?

Months ago, Borg said that a PN in government would explore the idea of introducing a four-day work week in the public service. He received equal parts flak and support for that, and the proposal has been absent throughout the PN’s election campaign, but ADPD seems to be embracing it.

Momentum wants a less powerful PM

Momentum was the only party worth following that did not present any family measures on Mother’s Day. Instead, the party proposed stripping the prime minister of a raft of powers that they argue no single person should hold in a democracy.

Among those powers are the sole authority to call an election date, decide whether magisterial inquiries are published, and control over high-level appointments. Momentum wants these powers transferred to parliament instead.

The party also proposed a constitutional convention that will take a broader look at how power is structured in Malta. The convention would be composed of legal experts, civil society, social partners and political figures.