From Mr C. Micallef

Time is ticking away fast and by the end of this year the government is supposed to solve our Pension Reform dilemma for our future generations.

I still cannot digest the unjust White Paper proposal that in order for the reform to be gradually introduced, it has to take over nearly four legislative terms before it is 100 per cent fully implemented! Imagine if we adopt the same system for every drastic change that has to be made this country! Take the proposed Health Reform for the new hospital, as an example. I am sure this is going to adversely affect many workers, especially those who for over three decades were used to certain tailor-made systems…you know !

So, it has been suggested that for one to be affected by the implementation of the new retirement age of 65, he/she has to be 46 or less. Therefore, such unlucky people will retire at 65 in about 19 years time This is ridiculous, and in my opinion, discriminates against young people because we were led to believe that ‘Pensions’ was a national, urgent issue, so everyone should shoulder this burden as far as possible.

I have suggested in other newspapers that starting at the age of 55 would be enough for the general public to acclimatise itself to this unpleasant shock. It works out as follows: those aged 55 and below retire at 65, 56 at 64, 57 at 63, 58 at 62, whereas those who will be 59 and 60 (when the law is enacted) would be unaffected, ie they will retire at 61.

I do not want to give the impression that I am in favour of increasing our retirement age, but unfortunately this is the trend we are following. At least, however, I expect it to be as fair as possible. This reminds me of the army and police. Would they still continue to retire after 25 years of service ?

Another proposal I had suggested is also based on fairness. It gives incentives that promote productivity by discouraging excessive abuse of sick leave, and unjustified, repetitive late arrivals and early departures from work. Briefly, it says: “the more you officially work, the earlier you retire.” The same age classification tapering, as explained above, would more or less apply (ie from the critical age of 55), but the difference here is that for most people the upper limit would be 63 (or less) and not 65, even if at present they are still a long way from retirement.

Everyone has the right to enjoy life. Because of the nature of certain jobs, however, great discrepancies unfortunately exist. Besides those lazy people who abuse the system, others have unique privileges to enjoy life to the fullest during all peak seasons, throughout their whole working life. So, why shouldn’t the majority who work much longer hours, have a slight advantage over these lucky guys to retire say two years before them? That is all I am expecting. I still want these glorified people to continue enjoying their conditions of work, but it’s not fair that they always keep on eating the good cake (symbolic for life) by themselves. The sun rises for everyone! Working from morning till late evening, with a mere 24 days or so of vacation leave entitlement, I don’t see much how one can enjoy life.

“Become like one of them, if you are jealous”, is a silly, selfish, and teasing statement based on the principle of “if you can’t beat them, join them”. Similarly, I can tell them: “Be like us, work 40 or more hours a week all year round and retire earlier”. Please, I do not wish to hear the monotonous, defensive argument about stress, because in this day and age, you very rarely find a place of work where you are relaxed. It’s not the first time that I read adverts of job vacancies stating that the selected candidate should be able to cope with the stress of deadlines! I even checked how they work in the UK; their conditions are inferior to those in Malta.

Bearing in mind that the Pensions’ Working Group was not directly led by the Minister for Family and Social Solidarity (although this is the impression one gets when logging onto www.pensions.gov.mt), I understand why my proposals may not be much welcomed.

It is high time unions stop asking for the moon and start considering my proposals seriously. Since my first letter on ‘Pensions’, which had appeared in The Malta Independent of 18 December 2003, I published over half a dozen more letters/articles on the same subject, and no one yet managed to officially criticise one of them. My proposals also lately appeared in In-Nazzjon. This all shows that they make sense. I am sorry for those who may find my thinking hard to accept (and wish me to be nailed to a cross), as truth, sometimes, hurts!

Science and modern technologies have added years to life but not life to years. This year, we saw an indirect reduction of four days vacation leave for all categories of workers (ie. everyone in the same bucket, which is very unfair). The vacation leave issue was just a tiny tickle compared to the Pension time bomb that awaits us. I hope that this time, fairness prevails. Good luck to all!

Charles Micallef

FGURA