In his regular column published in The Malta Independent yesterday, economist Alfred Mifsud made some significant points that merit attention.

In reference to the current negotiations on the renewal of the public service collective agreement, Mr Mifsud wrote that the government and the unions involved in the discussions “ought to bear in mind the sufferings that co-workers in the private sector, fully exposed to the discipline of globalisation pressures, will have to endure if the country continues to lose its competitiveness”.

He goes on to argue that “one of the reasons why we are in the macro-economic mess we are, is that in past rounds of collective agreements for the public sector, politicians bought themselves electoral favours with our tax money. They were too generous in discharging the role of government as the largest employer in the economy.”

Further on in his article, Mr Mifsud wrote about the “gross irresponsibility of the collective agreement signed soon after the 1998 elections as an expensive gesture financed by our tax money to say thank you to the public sector unions for helping the PN to win over the MLP which was holding tight to negotiate something much more prudent in the interest of the national economy.”

He then suggests that the government “should hold tight in insisting on the wage freeze for public sector employment while applying the money… to finance retraining programmes for surplus public sector employees to ease their way to productive employment in the private sector”.

Mr Mifsud is right on many points. First of all, one must see that mistakes committed in the past are not repeated, although it must be admitted that once unions gain

something for the workers – whether it is by right or, as Mr Mifsud puts it, as a gift – it is hard to go back. What we are seeing in the issue of public holidays falling at weekends is a perfect example.

Most of all, however, what is important in the current

scenario is that the government does not exacerbate its financial situation further by increasing its expenditure for its administration, at a time when the country’s finances are in dire straits.

Mr Mifsud makes a valid suggestion as to where the money “saved” by the three-year wage freeze the government is trying to impose should go. The retraining programme he proposes, in the hope that the excess workers in the public sector find it easier to gain employment in the private sector, is a proposal that all the sides on the

negotiating table should seriously discuss.

The problem remains, however, whether the private sector can, at this stage, take on board workers from the public sector. With so little investment in the private sector, it is difficult to believe that there is enough employment available to enable the government to reduce its workforce. But, in any case, it is a point worth pondering upon.

Mr Mifsud is also right in saying that there should be an end to the political games, adding that the government should “send the right signal to the labour markets by giving priority to the recovery of national competitiveness, without which employees in the private sector will lose not only their increments, but their jobs.”

What Mr Mifsud does not point out in his article is that the country’s competitiveness is also being hit by the fact that the public service is still working on half-steam during the summer because of the half-day system.

Of course, public service workers make up for this by working extra hours during the winter and shoulder months, but wasn’t it the time to bring government workers in line with those in the private sector? We use the past tense in this case because the government has already agreed – much to the glee of the unions – that it will not touch the half-day system in the deal it is negotiating.

Given the current situation, it would have been the right time for the government to put the removal of summer half-days in the public service on the agenda. When the deal being negotiated expires in three years’ time and another collective agreement is on the table, the election would be round the corner and it is highly improbable that summer half-days will be tackled then.