In an interview with The Malta Independent on Sunday, Mr Vella said the union will be taking part in Wednesday’s Malta Council for Economic and Social Development meeting and will consider the Convergence Plan later.

Prime Minister Gonzi told the press conference on Thursday that since Malta is not in the Stability Pact structure, there is no threat of the EU imposing measures against Malta because of the high deficit figures, as it could do with Stability Pact member

But since Malta, along with the other accession States, is due to enter the ERM mechanism in the coming years, the EU could, and did, give notice that the deficit figure is too high and can affect Malta’s entry to the eurozone.

In a long series of discussion with the EU, the government of Malta has shown the EU experts that while the debt is around nine per cent of GDP, this is mainly due to a one-off operation with regard to the Malta Shipyards. The real deficit is 6.3 per cent in real terms.

Malta has submitted the Convergence Plan and this has been discussed at length and in great detail with the EU experts. In this Plan, Malta shows that it has ambitious ideas to redress the financial deficit situation, but that this is achievable as long as everyone in Malta is focused on this issue.

Speaking in an interview with The Malta Independent on Sunday, the UHM secretary general urged the government to discuss its economic and financial plans with the unions and the social partners in the MCESD. Last November’s Budget Speech had been discussed at a special MCESD weekend in Gozo with then Finance Minister John Dalli, Mr Vella pointed out. However, since then, the government has been signally absent from MCESD. It sends its Permanent Secretaries, instead of people who can decide issues, and these in turn become messengers to their political masters who do not deign to go to MCESD to face their social counterparts.

MCESD, Mr Vella complained, has been turned into a talk shop by the government, which is not effective at all, instead of being the forum where the social partners meet the government and issues are decided there.

Besides, Mr Vella added, the government has suddenly changed the way it used to do things. With regard to the White Paper on the Civil Service, the government first issued the White Paper and then awaited comments from everyone. As regards the pension issue, the government is now insisting on MCESD first discussing it, after which the government will publish a White Paper, following which there will be time for reactions. A White Paper is a clear document, issued without ownership, a document for discussion, not an already agreed document.

The government must ensure that it gets value for money in anything it does. It is useless to have the Auditor General, year in year out pointing out at faults and defects with the same faults or defects being repeated year after year. Nor is it right for the Auditor General to come up with a report, such as that on roads, the Public Accounts Committee holds a series of meetings about it, and still, at the end, no one seems to be responsible. This country still has a number of fat cats, while the bulk of the people have to shoulder the burden, Mr Vella complained.

A related issue in his sights is the Central Bargaining Unit, set up by the government to handle all collective agreements. UHM itself had said in the past that such a structure was needed, but CBU today does not negotiate: it ferries messages to the government and back again. There is no effective bargaining. This is penny wise, pound foolish.

If the government wants workers to take part in the drive towards more economic growth, they must have new salary structures and better conditions of work.

Instead, there are now no less than 13 collective agreements which are stuck somewhere between the unions, CBU and the government. The government seems obsessed with cost cutting but it is not really focusing on getting greater efficiency, which it would get through a more coherent relations with its own employees.

The Freeport’s collective agreement is a case in point. It lapsed a year ago, and government is pushing through with the Freeport’s privatisation. The union insists that before privatisation is concluded, the collective agreement must be signed with today’s management and today’s workers. Those whose work is related to the Freeport must have their work conditions clear and in writing. The Freeport is Malta’s gateway to the world and the union intends to ensure it gets more and more efficient.