On Tuesday we will be celebrating the feast of St Joseph the Worker or, as it is better known, Worker’s Day. When I think about this day I realise that indeed Maltese workers now have the right reasons to celebrate such a feast.
Looking back at the first celebrations held during the Socialist era, I wonder what there was to celebrate. Immediately certain work practices come to mind such as the Izra u Rabbi, the Bahhar u Sewwi, and the disciplinary corps of Pijunieri and Id-Dejma.
These were the kind of job opportunities that the Labour administration at the time came up with. Family men were grateful if they managed to find employment with one of these entities, as job opportunities were non-existent. The daily scene then was reminiscent of the chain gangs used abroad in earlier times, where men were given a pick or shovel and taken to dig trenches or clean the streets in return for meagre wages. Nobody dared ask for better working conditions. Occasionally workers were enticed with extra days off work if they helped building carnival floats intended for the 1 May partisan celebrations.
The few working in the private sector were always worried that their employer would close shop before long, as there was no infrastructure to support private investment. Redundancies were the order of the day, and the lucky ones managed to negotiate a three-day week instead of redundancy. At the time, Malta attracted very little investment, if any.
Labour made a last attempt to reduce unemployment in 1986 when about 8,000 people were hastily recruited into the general service. It was the only way to mask the massive problem of unemployment that the country was facing.
It was a very different scenario from what we have today. I am by no means saying that everything is rosy. There are still unemployed people and there are still people who are not so easily employed. However, those who register for employment are not being left to rot but are being given the opportunities to receive training and acquire new skills in order to increase their prospects.
In 2006 alone, Malta attracted Lm575 million of foreign investment that will create job opportunities for the Maltese in the near future.
Last Monday, the Maltese government and Tecom Investments signed the contract that will initiate one of the best projects that Malta could ever attract – SmartCity. With an investment of $300 million, SmartCity is truly a record breaker. It will be creating 5,600 jobs, 2,000 of which are not in ICT but are technical, administrative or in tourism. A private study conducted by KPMG and Prof. Lino Briguglio concluded that within 10 years, job opportunities directly or indirectly related to SmartCity will have risen to 10,500.
Last year, Malta Enterprise approved 89 projects intended for the enlargement of existing factories or for the setting up of new ones. That means an increase of 29 per cent over the previous year. Another Lm3.3 million was allocated for a fund that can be used by those interested in setting up new companies and generating job opportunities.
Over the last three years, the ETC found employment for more than 11,000 people and last year, employers made more than 8,000 requests for staff to ETC. Lm6 million of EU funds are being invested by the ETC to create training programmes for workers, people with disability and for women.
The list of initiatives is endless. They include specific programmes for Gozo, huge investments in education, with particular attention being given to MCAST, and initiatives intended to encourage women to remain in, or return to, the labour market.
When we consider the initiatives being taken in favour of women, we realise that, as women, we have much to celebrate on 1 May. In this year’s budget, the government really and truly adopted the concept of making work pay and took more measures to ensure that it is worthwhile for women to stay in employment. Women returning to work are benefiting from a tax holiday, saving up to Lm700 in taxes and so far more than 500 women have benefited from this tax holiday, as they did not pay taxes for their first year of employment.
Families where both parents are in employment also need the support of childcare facilities and they need to have their minds at rest that their children are being cared for by qualified personnel. The government has allocated a grant of Lm150,000 for child care centres where the facilities need to be upgraded in accordance with national standards. In conjunction with this, the ETC has conducted child-minding courses and paid for child care while parents were attending these courses. In the meantime, a child care allowance paid by the employer is no longer considered a fringe benefit.
Another sector that has been addressed concerns women who are employed in the family business. These women are now considered as employees for tax purposes and they are also enjoying pension rights.
The government is also giving incentives to encourage more part-time work, as this offers flexibility to women. In fact, in a year the number of part-timers has increased by 3,463. Part-timers can now pay pro rata national insurance contributions, with the result that they have more cash in hand.
Pension reform also addressed families with young children. Parents who had to refrain from work to take care of children are now being given credits in their pension. Two years’ credit is given for every child, while in the case of disabled children, credits go up to four years. All parents can benefit from these credits, including those who adopt children and those who are self-employed.
Only initiatives like these, sensibly made to address employees’ needs from the moment they leave secondary school all the way to retirement age, make 1 May really worth celebrating.
Michelle Mallia is president of the Nationalist Party Women’s Movement