Malta's economic success should not be measured solely by its surplus and Gross Domestic Product, but also workers' wellbeing and quality of life, Adrian Delia said on Friday. 

"The government speaks about numbers while workers and their families suffer to make ends meet, to the detriment of their quality of life," the PN leader told a seminar. 

Delia said that the past few weeks have shown a greater need to invest in healthcare workers. Money should be invested in platforms and tools that encourage young people to take up careers in the health sector, he added. 

'Clean air should become a new normal'

Meanwhile, the Green Party called for an EU-wide plan based on a social and ecological vision as the only effective exit from the COVID-19 crisis.

”Those most affected by this crisis are low wage earners, freelancers, platform workers and the self-employed. A new normal should ensure that every type of worker has real and effective access to public support schemes," AD chair Carmel Cacopardo said in a statement.

He also called for laws that ban zero-hours contracts.

"Everyone should be guaranteed a basic income that lifts them out of poverty or risk of poverty. It is unacceptable that we have a section of workers whose work does not guarantee a decent quality of life."

Cacopardo proposed an EU study on the implementation of a universal basic income system and universal public services that guarantee a decent quality of life to all. 

“We also need a serious and comprehensive EU wide Green investment programme, the Green New Deal, to remodel our economies into economies which serve the interests of society, to wean our economies of their dependence on pollution and fossil fuels. Clean air should become a new normal."