On the occasion of International Workers' Day, Prime Minister Robert Abela said the past week has shown how well the government has maintained a good quality life for workers.
Abela said that this does not mean that no one in Malta is going through a difficult period due to the pandemic but it does mean that "we have maintained the situation of many Maltese families in a good position."
"When looking at other countries, we have done much better," he said.
During a brief video posted by the Labour party with the aim of delivering a message on Workers' Day, PM Abela expressed his gratitude and thanked all Maltese and Gozitan workers who have survived these past 15 months despite being in a pandemic.
As Workers' Day is being celebrated today, PM Abela visited a number of workers within different sectors including workers of St. Vincent de Paul, workers at the Baxter factor, workers at the Customs Department as well as workers at WasteServ. Throughout the day, he will be visiting more workers across the island.
Abela said that this week proved to be the biggest testament to how much the government is working on strengthening the workers in this country. This a principle that the government works on every day and so the last few days have been no exception.
PM Abela mentioned a few examples of the incentives the government made during the pandemic to support the many working sectors who are struggling.
"We have announced €20 million in business aid, both in terms of assistance as well as incentives. Applications have been re-issued to further repair the injustice of the past with a value of €10 million. We have also announced a new collective agreement for more workers of disciplined bodies, but this time for prison officers. We have also alleviated burdens on businesses hit hard by the pandemic, as the Malta Tourism Authority (MTA) has wavered the payment of licenses and contributions for this year," Abela said.
Speaking about the infrastructure sector, Abela noted that the government aims to continue working hard in order to develop a more beautiful and cleaner Malta.
He explained that statistics related to work have shown that Malta has kept its unemployment rate under control and has again highlighted that Malta has among the lowest unemployment rates when compared to other countries.
Abela added that "we have strengthened our workforce and created more jobs."
The celebration of workers must be celebrated every day in the improvements that are made in the quality of people's lives, in the work itself by creating new opportunities, in the support and schemes that have been launched and that will be further launched to support the people in this country, Abela said.