Prime Minister Joseph Muscat has pledged that a Labour government will extend child care services to be open in the evening for those who work at night.
Addressing a press conference in Valletta this morning, the Prime Minister gave more details on the electoral promises related to employment. He announced that the government is willing to introduce evening child care and to offer free child care services for those parent who would want to sit for a full-time university course.
Dr Muscat said that the government will be introducing more family friendly measures so that more parents are encouraged to take up a job. He said that the private sector needs to start implementing flexi-working hours as so far, it is only the government which offers this.
The maternity leave reform, Dr Muscat said, was already mentioned in the last budget. He said that consultation is ongoing to transform this into a parental leaeve system where the father and mother can share their maternity and paternity leave as they wish.
While presenting these new measures for childcare, Dr Muscat still insisted that the free-for-fall childcare proposal presented by the Nationalist Party is not sustainable and counter-productive.
Accompanying the Prime Minister was Minister for Education Evarist Bartolo, who praised the government's achievements in the employment sector. He said that the number of people who have a job is the highest ever while the unemployment numbers are the lowest level.
Mr Bartolo said that the PN government, between 2009 and 2013, created 10,000 new jobs, the PL government has created more than 35,000 new jobs, 29,000 of which on full-time basis.
The unemployed went down from 7,000 to some 2,500. He announced that the government is planning on increasing the tax benefit for employers who offer child care from €20,000 to €50,000.
"We inherited a situation of work crises and transformed it into a record in employment," he told journalists.
Meanwhile, Joseph Muscat said that the government has delivered, saying that unlike what used to be said by the Nationalist Party, "Labour has worked".
Parliamentary privilege pledge not instigated by recent events - Muscat
When asked to explain what led to the decision to include the removal of parliamentary privilege in the election manifesto, Joseph Muscat dismissed the idea that this was instigated by the recent sparks of political attacks between him and the Opposition. "This was a matter which was mentioned by MPs from both sides of the House. Censu Galea and Evarist Bartolo, for instance, are just two examples of MPs who had suggested for the introduction of such a measure."
He said that this privilege was introduced so that MPs would be able to reveal things about each other without having the right for rebuke. "The world has changed. And I believe that MPs have to be responsible for what they say. It does not make much sense to see that you can say whatever you want in Parliament but things change completely when that same person speaks up in public or even simply on the social media."
He said he is hopeful that even the Opposition will be in favour of this measure.