The first Saturday in the 2008 election campaign was spent in the parties preparing for today’s two mass meetings – the first test of popular support and a means to get the faithful together and in a celebratory mood – and also in a controversy regarding overtime.

The controversy began with Labour’s commitment to remove tax on overtime, then the Nationalist Party latched on to an interview with Dr Charles Mangion on the Economic Update magazine in which he seemed to say that overtime would be paid at time and no longer at time and a half. This interview was subsequently corrected but the damage was done.

Then on Friday Dr Sant said that during the negotiations for the social pact the government had proposed that the first four hours of overtime be remunerated at normal rates of pay for a maximum of 100 hours of overtime in a year.

In a statement issued yesterday morning the government pointed out that in the social pact talks it had acted as a facilitator between the employers and the unions. The proposal that overtime hours be paid at normal rates of pay came from the employers, not from the government, and this was a temporary measure only. A PN statement added that what the employers had suggested was then made by Dr Mangion as his own proposal in a bid to get them on its side.

Later on in the day, Dr Sant published the first draft of a social pact presented by the government and the employers in November 2004 which included the proposal. Dr Mangion added that in the Air Malta talks this same proposal was made by the government side.

The government replied in yet another statement issued in late afternoon. It repeated the proposal had been made by the employers only and added that as regards the Air Malta talks, the proposal had been made by the management, against the advice of the minister responsible for the company.