Malta’s
hourly labour cost drop featured in the private sector, in construction and
services respectively. Ans while the
public sector and industry experienced small increases, Malta’s inflation rate
is overshadowing this. Indeed official figures for February 2019 show the
highest increases since January 2017. Inflation during February read 1.92 per
cent, putting greater hardships on families, workers, pensioners and youth on basic expenditure on
items such as food, medicinal products, health services, transport, home
maintenance and rent.
A few
months ago, President Marie Louise Coleiro highlighted the plight of such people when she referred to a
study by the National Observatory for Living With Dignity and the National
Centre for Family Research,
both of which are research entities within her Foundation for the Well-being of
Society.
The study
shows that four-person families in Malta have to spend more than €500 a month
for healthy food. This is too high for many families, especially when one
considers other expenditure such as that referred to above in comparison to
Malta’s wages. The math is clear.
Malta is
now witnessing social challenges that had been a thing of the past: For example
persons in the 25-35 age bracket who keep living with their parents not out of
choice but because the cost of housing is simply too high. The importation of
workers for cheap labour is also resulting in a race to the bottom between
workers at the expense of their quality of life.
It is
becoming clearer that Malta’s fast economic growth is coming at the expense of
social justice and the environment. True, there are winners in this model, but
it is also true that many are losing out: The working poor and the downwardly
mobile who are playing by the rules but losing the game.
It is
about time that the Government gives serious consideration to the proposals by trade unions, economists
and sociologists for a realistic and sustainable revision of Malta’s Cost of
Living Allowance (COLA). Its current measurement seems out of synch with the
realities faced by workers and pensioners, resulting in negligible compensation
for higher prices of goods and services.
Government should also seriously look into the creation of refunds or discounts
for elderly persons and low income earners for basic goods and services such as
utility bills.
As a candidate for the European Parliament I am
also proposing that the EU budget should be more flexible for the needs of
small islands, which, for example, are more susceptible to the inflationary
pressure due to high import content.
Economic reforms pushed by the European Commission
should be monitored at member state level, where civil society should play an
active role for sustainable and socially just reforms.
Malta requires an economic vision that does not
simply look at GDP growth rates but that also factors in people’s quality of
life. The social and the environmental should not be sacrificed for the benefit
of an unequal and unsustainable economic vision.
