A record crowd gathered in St. George’s Square and adjoining streets in Valletta to wave goodbye to 2015 and to greet 2016. Party-goers popped champagne bottles, hugged and kissed during the first minutes of 2016. But, as the saying goes all good things come to an end and after a night out the tired but happy revellers returned home safely.
2016 kicked-in with the Prime Minister’s address to the nation. The Prime Minister’s address to the nation irked many people including many genuine Labourites. From the luxurious kitchen of the young couple, the Prime Minister failed to get his message across to the nation. Message, content and style were produced, directed and finished in bad taste.With feet on the ground many viewers realised how disconnected the PM has become with different groupings in our society. The stage-managed political media stunt made more harm than good.
Grateful to the restless swings of the pendulum the clock continued to chime every hour. On different occasions, time is perceived to speed by while at other times it crawls slowly.It is the approach we take to resolve different circumstances which makes the clock go faster or slower. In situations we dreadtime crawls but time flies when we are having fun.
Within a couple of days from New Year’s Day, offices and companies shut-downs were over, students were whisked back to school and the House resumed business yesterday. The daily routine has, once again, started to take shape.
At this time of the year, needless to say, money would be very tight for a sizeable portion of people within our society. Many would realise that they will have to make ends meet on a very tight budget. With little elbow room to manoeuvre workers earning the national minimum wage and other relative low wages days are certainly crawling. Waiting on the receiving end for the first pay-packet of 2016 to ease some of their financial pressures and patch-up some black-holes in their wallets seems to take longer.
This year the national minimum wage will be augmented with €1.75 weekly. The purpose of the COLA is to restore the erosion in the standard of living due to higher prices in the previous twelve months.The national minimum wage was introduced on December 2, 1974 at €23.29 weekly. On a span of 42 years the national minimum wage has increased to €168.01.Since then, the minimum wage has been increasing every year. Although, yearly wage increases were not awarded during 1981-1989. During these years a wage-freeze policy was imposed.
The debate on the national minimum wage and the implications of improving it surfaces from time to time. This has been consistently argued by employers’and entrepreneurs’ bodies that any wage increases beyond productivitygains would threaten Malta’s competiveness. In contrast, in 2012 it was suggested by Caritas Malta that an increase in the minimum wage rate by 13.8% is warranted, as the prevailing rate was too low to cover the cost of living of lowincome families.
It is well recognised that Malta is going through a stream of economic positive trends. Steady GDP growth, high employment growth rate, lower unemployment rate, increased government revenuewhile public debt has dropped.In addition to these positive indicators the global oil prices hit a new bottom.Brent crude price was slashed by 48% in 2014 and reduced by another 34% in 2015 and is expected to take another dip this year.
With these economic positive trends in the bag during the New Year’s message the Prime Minister could have indicated that the needs of those at risk of povertyand others would be taking a priority in 2016 without putting into jeopardy Malta’s competitiveness. Alleviating low wage earners and their dependants from social exclusion and poor quality of life is a reality which needs to be addressed with fairer distribution of wealth.
Alternatively, the Prime Minister could have pledged to honour meritocracy, transparency and accountability without fear or favour.
Do you care to join me for a cup of tea and straight talk?
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