With the end of summer, the issue of “half-days” returns with the new collective agreement for the public service. This time it is the Chamber of Commerce and Enterprise president who is calling for the abolition of the half-days’ perk. Quoted last week, Tancred Tabone said the chamber (which was not consulted regarding the increase) could not understand the logic of the “generous wage increase” for public servants in the €60 million deal (later disclosed to reach €190m) and hoped the rise has been pegged to an increase in performance. More will be revealed if and when the document is made public.

Tabone added: “These negotiations would have been a perfect opportunity for the government to abolish the half-days, which today are widely considered a luxury the country cannot afford.” Others raised some eyebrows over the fact that the increase happens to be agreed on the eve of an election but, to be fair, the last agreement expired two years ago, so it is long overdue.

Government says the increase will have no impact on its deficit and the whole package (still to be disclosed) will cost €190 million over a period of six years (equivalent to a 13 per cent increase). Most of the extra pay will be passed on to the workforce and former public servants will also see their pensions increase. Surprise and consternation at the ill-timed increase was reflected in the words of Malta Employers Association director-general Joe Farrugia. He said that public servants should only be given wage increases if there was an increase in their productivity. Naturally, he said the timing of the agreement is too close to the looming election and that the faux pas puts more pressure on the government, particularly from the unions, to give much more than the country can afford.

Employers frequently raise the issue of shorter working days during the summer months, with the emphasis being not whether or not there should be half-day arrangements during the summer months, but whether offices in the public sector need to become more efficient and customer-driven. Particularly during a recession in Europe, it is obvious that competitiveness is a key factor for Malta to survive the competition from Asia, and the EU is continually seeking ways of surviving and growing in a globalised environment. We often hear local importers complaining that as the rhythm of work increases in summer, they are faced with reduced accessibility when using government services.

A case in point is the Customs Department, where in summer, due to the half-days, consignments that would usually be cleared in the afternoon have to be left for the next day. This causes undue stress on the businesses that, out of necessity, need to clear their goods as soon as they are received and they have to request an officer being available in the afternoon at an additional cost. (It is true that government departments have improved their delivery service due to the use of electronic means and that they also offer different working schedules.)

Some civil servants actually want the practice of working half days in summer ceased, because they have not finished their work by 1.30pm and have to stay at work for longer (sometimes without being paid overtime, or having a disturbance allowance). The work of other departments, such as the Refugee Commission, peaks in the summer, so half-days do not make sense there either. Could a solution be using the Cypriot flexi-hours system, which entails working daily shorter hours but with an extended Thursday? One should appreciate that workers cannot sustain the same level of efficiency and productivity during our hot summer afternoons, even if their working environment is equipped with air-conditioners and the rest.

Moreover, most Maltese would rather opt for the beach than try to work extra hours in the afternoons simply because the private sector works full days. Negotiations with the strong unions are tough and never succeed in removing the traditional perk of shorter summer hours. Yet the senior administrators know which departments could offer a better service in the summer and could devise a system that uses flexible hours – flexitime – to ensure that the public is served adequately without the unnecessary delays caused by the fact that government offices are closed in summer afternoons.

Now with the wider use of computers and remote working facilities, more work can be carried out and adequately supervised at home. But the main union responsible for clerical workers, the UHM, disagrees. It strongly maintains that, given our climatic conditions, the abolition of summer half-days – just so that government departments would be able to offer a full-day service in the summer – would in no way enhance the productivity, efficiency or competitiveness of our country.

This philosophy will never be reconciled with the stark reality that the country has a heavy deficit to address, and with this exceeding the 60 per cent threshold the time is coming when our budgets will have to reflect serious cuts in public expenditure. Perhaps there has never been a better time to tighten our belts and see some improvement in the service. Bloggers have written about the quality of the customer service: the way calls are answered is crying out for revision and people object when a condescending attitude is used by certain staff answering phone calls with the “hi” u “qalbi” routine.

In this age of Service Quality Charters (not forgetting 15 per cent performance bonus for directors) one expects clerks to be properly trained and behave in a more polite manner, but old habits die hard. It is not hard to say: “Good morning” and give the name of the department; “Hello” is simply not good enough.

Now that the €190 million increase has been factored in for the next five years, can the taxpayer expect a better service instead of more of the same? It is a fact that half-days are a sacred cow, but then we have reformed our decrepit public transport service and replaced it with modern air-conditioned buses, so why can somebody not take the bull by the horns over civil service efficiency? It is only fair, to say the least, that once the increase across the board has been signed then workers expect to also receive all arrears before Christmas.

This increase, which will be backdated to 1 January 2010, came as a complete surprise to larger EU members, which are actively slashing public service jobs or reducing pay levels to make savings in order to bring down their soaring deficits. Starting with Cyprus (a bail-out country) it has ratified its 2013 budget which includes cuts of 1,000 civil servant jobs as a move to kick-start a host of other austerity measures. It was forced to seek an international bail-out in June to support its banks that were battered by exposure to debt-crippled Greece.

Like us, the Cypriot civil service has enjoyed reduced working hours in summer. In fact, it appears that working hours vary according to sector and profession, yet most offices and businesses work from 8am to 5.30pm, with a break from 1pm to 2.30pm. In many cases one afternoon, usually Wednesday, is free and on that day work stops at 1pm.

By contrast, the public sector works Mondays to Fridays from 7.30am to 2.30pm but Thursday is a full day, which includes working from 3pm to 6pm.

Back to our collective agreement, it is expected that 4,000 workers benefited from family-friendly measures under the old agreement and this number is expected to double, while new family-friendly measures – tele-working, flexitime, the possibility of taking leave on an hourly basis and reduced hours – are to be introduced.

In conclusion, there are a number of key risks that must be properly managed to avoid taxpayers’ money being swallowed up in more bureaucracy, red tape and inefficiency. In the past, wage awards were intended to ensure that increases in public sector pay were directly linked to a better quality of service to the public. But has this materialised? The benefits to customers are hard to come by, whereas all government agencies and regulators have sought ways of increasing their charges to users.

The finance minister has promised benchmarking of the various departments, which is quite a task. If departments minimise the complexities of their service delivery chains, then fewer resources will be wasted on unnecessary bureaucracy. By securing more equitable access to improvements, departments should be better placed to manage the risk of unacceptable differences in the quality of public services locally. Through better planning and investment there are more likely to be sufficient numbers of skilled front line staff so that improvements in public services will be sustainable in the longer term.

This is an ambitious task, given the complexity of the services provided by the myriad departments and agencies. But only by having reliable information, including benchmarking and productivity measures, will departments be in a stronger position to identify and tackle poor quality services quickly and demonstrate where performance is improving. Hopefully, the government will administer the medicine and, if needed, carry out the surgery where it is needed most. That will be the kindest cut of all.

George M. Mangion

The writer is a partner in audit and business advisory firm PKF