Sant says government wanted to cut overtime rate

After having manipulated Labour's overtime proposal by falsely suggesting that the party intended having overtime paid at a normal rate rather than the present time-and-a-half, MLP leader Alfred Sant said the Nationalist government itself had made such a proposal when negotiating the social pact in 2004.

The government had proposed that the first 100 hours of overtime be paid at the normal hourly rate, he said speaking at an activity in Freedom Square, Valletta yesterday.

The issue was raised earlier this week when the Prime Minister criticised the MLP's proposal to make overtime tax free and said the party intended doing away with the present practice of paying overtime at time-and-a-half.

Both Dr Sant and his deputy, Charles Mangion, insisted Labour had no plans to have overtime paid at a normal rate.

The comment that Labour intended changing the overtime rate had been attributed to Dr Mangion in an interview that appeared in December's issue of Economic Update. Dr Mangion had corrected the comment through a statement the day after the article appeared but the Nationalist Party insisted in the past days that Labour did plan to change the rate, with Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi reading from the same Economic Update issue at a business breakfast.

The MLP had no intention of doing this, Dr Mangion insisted yesterday, citing the electoral manifesto approved on Thursday. Instead it was the present government that wanted to implement such a measure as part of the Air Malta 2006 rescue plan, he said.

Dr Sant said the government had proposed to have the first 100 overtime hours paid at the normal rate. This happened during the talks in 2005 on the social pact agreement it was trying to reach with the social partners.

In both cases, the General Workers' Union opposed the move, which was not implemented. "This is a crystal example of the deceptive and unaccountable government that this is," Dr Sant said, accusing Dr Gonzi of lying blatantly.

He homed specifically onto Dr Gonzi in most of his speech yesterday, saying that the cult of personality the PN spin machine was generating was turning the PN leader into a high priest of sorts that was above the requirements of transparency and accountability by which politicians should be bound.

In this connection, he mentioned the recent case involving the Parliamentary Secretary within the Finance Ministry, Tonio Fenech, who, he said, had signed off some €35,000 to a private company that was responsible for organising the recent Juventus match against Valletta, adding that Dr Gonzi had absolved this unacceptable behaviour.

"Well, the Prime Minister too will have to be held accountable for this behaviour," Dr Sant warned as his parting shot.