During parliament question time last week, Finance Minister John Dalli attacked the Union Haddiema Maghqudin (UHM) after it staged a three-hour strike over delays in talks over collective agreements, including their call for pay rises. Mr Dalli argued that increasing wages would exert huge pressure on the government to raise taxes.
He said that the government would be amenable to negotiating pay rises but he was adamant that the increases should be implemented with conditions that productivity be improved and that changes in work practices take place.
Mr Dalli claimed that the UHM was waywardly requesting excessive pay rises: 'extrapolate such increases over 50,000 people in the public service and you will find out what it will cost the country and how such increases could relate to taxes', he said.
The UHM, otherwise known as the United Workers Union, is the second largest union in Malta with around 25,000 members employed in the public sector. This recent disagreement over collective agreements between the government and the UHM is the latest in a long line of arguments over the talks and it is no surprise that the UHM launched its three-hour strike last week. As early as March, the general secretary of the union, Gejtu Vella, told the local press: 'The UHM has repeatedly appealed to the Ministry of Finance that it needs to be swift and efficient in discussing collective agreements rather than creating bottlenecks which cause tension in industrial relations. Procrastination is leading to frustration and we are not prepared to wait much longer. We have been saying that the Ministry of Finance needs to beef up its negotiating office so that discussions are carried out swiftly and efficiently. We shall shortly move from words to action.'
The union's assistant general secretary, Joe Grillo, also attacked Mr Dalli's comments, saying that it put pressure on the UHM and that the union was "flabbergasted" over Mr Dalli's remarks, in that he would use the UHM as an excuse to raise taxes.
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