GWU to call for COLA mechanism adjustment to reflect increases in fuel and energy costs

Friday’s Malta Council for Economic and Social Development (MCESD) meeting was hastily called by government following pressures trade unions in the wake of the sudden hike in fuel costs announced on 1 January.

One of the long-term proposals that the GWU will be tabling during the council meeting, representing the FOR.U.M of unions that does not enjoy representation on the council,  is a call for the cost of living increase (COLA) to be calculated based on the national average wage.

Zarb said the GWU would also be recommending that government commissions another Household Budgetary Survey that gives more weighting to fuel and energy prices than it currently does.

He added that the union would also be calling on government to take “concrete action” on measures guaranteeing effective regulation of the spiralling cost of living, adding that “government needs to be a part of the system.”

The short-term proposal that will be tabled during the MCESD meeting will also include a one-time compensation amounting to not less than that given to consumers last year, Zarb said, explaining that the long-term proposals includes a call for a revision in the way the COLA is calculated.

In his own address, FOR.U.M president John Bencini accused government of indulging in “misguided priorities”, pointing out that multimillion expenditures such as the City Gate project, and the introduction of Smart Meters – as well as the €600 increase per week to Ministers - jarred completely with the austerity measures that the people are facing every day.

He dismissed government’s boasts that it has refrained from carrying out austerity measures. “If these aren’t austerity measures, then what are,” he asked, referring to the inferior COLA of €1.16 as compared to last year’s €5.82 and the gas and fuel price hikes.

“Government should stop hiding behind words, call a spade a spade, and admit these austerity measures for what they are” Bencini said.

Bencini also hit out at Malta Resources Authority - supposedly responsible for regulating the gas prices and their effect on consumers – for failing to regulate prices properly. He argued that it was anomalous that gas companies were in the position to be able to issue prices lower than those approved by the MRA.

“This shows that the MRA clearly did not do its calculations properly in approving prices that the gas companies could afford to undercut,” Bencini maintained. “What sort of regulators approves prices that are too high?”

In his address, Bencini also called for a united front among all unions. “If government faced a united front of all Maltese unions, it would be acting very differently and stepping more cautiously than it is now,” he said.

In conclusion, Zarb emphasised that “tomorrow, government has an opportunity to reach an agreement with unions on an issue of national importance. It should not squander it.”

Asked whether the GWU or FOR.U.M would be participating in the national protest announced by the Labour Party, Zarb was non-committal, answering simply that “members are free to attend or not as they wish.”

Bencini maintained that, according to FOR.U.M’s statute, the organisations cannot participate in political demonstration.