UHM says it won't fall into a trap

The Union Haddiema Maghqudin yesterday insisted it was not prepared to cave in to measures that would dent workers' rights and conditions in return for a social pact.

Hopes of hammering out a social pact before next week's budget were dashed when the employers and unions disagreed on certain aspects of a draft pact drawn up by MCESD chairman Victor Scicluna.

Among other measures intended to regenerate the economy, the draft proposed a reduction in vacation leave over three years and giving workers normal pay for the first four hours of overtime every week until 2007. It also proposed that the government should commit itself not to increase income tax and VAT rates.

Though UHM officials repeated time and again that it was not too late to reach an agreement, it was evident from a news conference yesterday that there was a gulf between the employers and the trade unions on certain fundamental issues.

UHM general secretary Gejtu Vella was, however, vague when asked how much leeway the UHM was prepared to give in order to reach agreement.

There was a faction within the Malta Council for Economic and Social Development, which had an agenda to sabotage the agreement at all costs, Mr Vella claimed.

UHM president Gejtu Tanti said that contrary to the impression being given, the union never considered, let alone accepted, any changes in overtime or the reduction of vacation leave as proposed by the MCESD chairman or the employers.

Likewise, the UHM never contemplated the capping of government employees' wage bill, to ensure that any increases would not exceed one per cent. Nor did the union accept any discussion at council level on a change in working hours of employees in the public sector.

Mr Tanti said the UHM had always negotiated on the grounds that any compensation for the cost of living should be included in the wage packet. The union was prepared to accept cash payments as increases provided they were free of tax and national insurance.

A plan to introduce a benchmarking exercise on revenue covering all sectors for a period of three years would have dealt a blow to tax evasion, he said.

The social pact would have forced employers to contribute 40 cents a week for each employee towards training. It had been agreed that the government should contribute towards the setting up of child care centres.

The UHM also urged the government to bind itself not to increase taxes and to take corrective measures if the inflation rate increased as part and parcel of the social pact.

Mr Vella explained that the social pact would have incorporated a series of measures that would have benefited both workers and the economy, adding that he believed that an agreement would have paved the way for the creation of 4,500 jobs over three years.

He insisted, however, that no final agreement had been reached at MCESD level and that many of the so-called proposals leaked to the media were nothing more than reports drawn up by working groups or the council chairman.

Mr Vella branded a "clown" the person who leaked documents to the media intentionally to sabotage the social pact.

"In the last few days someone has tried to act as the workers' defender by exposing proposals which it knows the UHM has never considered, let alone accepted," Mr Vella said.

Later, the General Workers' Union expressed its satisfaction that the UHM was adopting the same line it was taking on the proposals being put forward for the formation of the social pact.

The GWU said it expected the UHM to, as soon as possible, make a clear statement within the MCESD that, like the GWU, it did not agree with all the measures before the council and that would mean additional burdens on the workers.

The GWU added that now that the government and the employers' associations know the unions' position, they should abandon the proposals that would result in a burden to the workers if they truly want the discussions on the social pact to go on.