[WATCH] Delia accuses Prime Minister of ‘lying’ about workers being paid €1 an hour

The PN leader said that as the Prime Minister had done on other issues, he was claiming not to know anything in order not to take action

Nationalist Party leader Adrian Delia has accused the Prime Minister of lying to the nation when yesterday he rejected claims by the Opposition leader that some workers were being paid as little as €1 an hour.

Yesterday, during a debate against the Prime Minister, Delia quoted UHM CEO Josef Vella who said that the union had recently discovered that a group of foreign workers were being paid €1 and that rather than being paid directly, their wages were being transferred to an agency in India.  

Speaking during a political activity in Sliema, Delia said that while the Prime Minister denied the claims, the person who had originally made them was none other than Foundation for Social Welfare services and former Labour mayor Alfred Grixti.

Moreover, Delia said, he had made them in the presence of the Prime Minister.

“He lied to the whole nation and tried to make it seem as though I was lying and that I had incorrect information when he had the information himself and did nothing about it,” Delia insisted.

“Like with other issues, he is saying he doesn’t have any information and can’t take the necessary step when in reality he does,” Delia said.

He described the Prime Minister as one of the country’s most able propagandists but insisted that the country could now see through him. “He told us that about all these rich people he wants to see when 72,000 people on the brink of poverty, and he does nothing.”

Delia again stressed that wages in Malta had increased by one of the lowest rates across the EU, adding that the government’s surplus  or the country’s GDP did not reflect how well people were doing, and only showed that the population was growing.  

“Your portion, your slice is getting smaller,” he insisted. “Between 2016 and 2016, 64% of Maltese workers effectively started earning less.”

Moreover, he said that while Muscat wanted all Maltese people to become  managers, the country had the second highest rate of early school leavers, with the PN leader pinning the blame on the government, which he said was not investing enough in education.

He said the government had created an environment that was so expensive that it pushed talented Maltese youths to seek opportunities abroad.

Delia went on to say that the Prime Minister had shamelessly said that Malta’s rule of law was intact. He said that while the Attorney General had been allowed to work independently under a PN administration, this couldn’t be said for the present government.

READ MORE: Joseph Muscat and Adrian Delia spar in calm debate

He pointed to successive reports complied by various European entities like Greco and the Venice Commission, which Delia said had condemned the government’s actions.

Delia, started off his address by thanking all those who the country relied on to offer their services, from rubbish collectors, to cleaners and all of those who worked using their hands, including farmers.

“Joseph Muscat doesn’t want them to work in the sun, which is why he is going to destroy farming and animal husbandry because he said they don’t contribute to our economy,” he said, again accusing the Prime Minister of growing the economy by increasing the country’s population.

“Thank you to those who every day, whether they chose to do so or not, work with their hands and give a service to all of society,” he continued.

The Labour Party, he said, had lost its social conscience and was today ashamed to say it was a socialist party.

READ MORE: Prime Minister’s comments on foreign workers anything but socialist - Graffitti