Malta Employers' Association director general Joe Farrugia said that "employers have never been happy with the cost of living adjustment (COLA) mechanism, an issue we have been raising for decades".

Speaking to this newsroom after taking exception to a headline in which employers were said to be "happy" about the low COLA, he said that COLA is an automatic calculation based on the Retail Price Index and the mechanism is what it is.

On the €0.58c increase in COLA, the lowest in years, he said that when COLA was €6, employers would be burdened to pay the full €6, adding that it is not an issue of being happy or disappointed.

"What we have always done is criticise the concept and not the computation of COLA," Mr Farrugia explained.