Nationalist Party deputy leader and businessman Robert Arrigo has decided to contribute his parliamentary honoraria to the Staff Fund of the PN media.

He will also forgo the salary from his family business in order to be able to continue to pay the wages of employees. 

Writing on Facebook on Tuesday about the difficulties faced by businesses and workers owing to the COVID-19 crisis, Arrigo said the PN workers were not being treated like other workers and had been denied the €800 wage subsidy (by the government) at a time when revenue had taken a steep downturn.

He observed that as Workers' Day approached, some 100,000 persons all over the country were without a safety net, notwithstanding the taxes they had paid in the past. At the same time, those employed by the government as persons of trust would still rake in around €50 million this year.  

Government aid to businesses was feeble, he said, and in any case, those companies which would receive  €800 a month to hand to each of their workers would find it hard to top up salaries. Others would have to give up planned investment.

He said that in order to be able to continue to pay wages, his family and himself would forgo their salaries. "A concrete way to say thank you and hope for a better future," Arrigo said.