I still find the watered down decision to increase MPs honoraria to be against the values of solidarity, fairness and living by example.

I am a mere white collar worker. Most of my friends are white collar or blue collar workers as well. A good 80% of our group (employed with different companies and government departments) were promised raises and performance bonuses for 2009 and 2010. As many in Malta and Gozo will probably guess, those pay increases and bonuses were forfeited as the recession hit and companies scaled back on payments.

So… let us get this straight. We are working much harder than we did before, both in terms of hours put in and the amount of work actually performed during office hours. We worked hard to save our own skins and the skins of our employers. Yet, we were not paid what we were promised.

The government in the meantime, goes ahead and decides that all MPs, their input in parliament disregarded, should get an increase. The government argues that Malta’s MPs are paid miserably for the time they put in and they have not had a pay rise in years.

Well, here’s some food for thought. The general public, whether in the civil service or private enterprise, are paid miserably compared to the work that is put in. Here is another fact, most people have not had a pay rise for quite some time, yet the government decided to go ahead and do it anyway.

We wonder what would happen if the MPs had to do what most people in the private sector did. We fear for our job and we work hard because that was what was needed. We were told to forfeit our raises as the “money was simply not there.” One wonders what would happen if all those who were promised an increase, in writing, were to take the matter up with the relevant authorities… the answer is simple… many companies would go bust.

I hope this letter imparts some of the pent up feelings of anger, disillusionment, disgust and worry that I, as a citizen of Malta, harbour towards our government and the opposition for the cheeky, dishonest way that politicians have behaved.

■ Ivan Grech

Zebbug