Minimum wage earners are becoming ‘the working poor’, PD warns

Malta’s low unemployment rate belies the fact that a number of minimum wage earners, whose pay has been decreasing compared to the average wage, have become the country’s ‘working poor’, the Democratic Party said.

In a statement Friday, the PD said that this situation was being compounded by the influx of third country nationals, some of whom are being subjected to employment conditions which breach work practice regulations.

The party said that it had been repeatedly calling on the government to safeguard Maltese workers’ rights regarding the principle of equal pay for equal work, a liveable wage that respects a life work balance, and for conditions of work that protect the wellbeing and safety of all workers and professions.

“We live in times when, even though we have full employment, our minimum wage has progressively decreased when compared to the average wage, and to add insult to injury, the purchasing power has also decreased. Minimum wage earners have thus become the working poor,” PD MEP Candidate Martin Cauchi Inglott said.

The working conditions which some non-EU nationals are experiencing, moreover, are making the gap between minimum wage earners and those earning an average wage more stark. “Work and human dignity is fast disappearing to maximise on profits,” fellow PD MEP hopeful Camilla Appelgren highlighted.

“It is imperative that the transposed Single Permit Directive is adhered to, as otherwise we will be breaking EU regulations and Maltese law,” Appelgren added.

The party also made reference to recent media reports that hundreds of construction workers from Turkey are expected to be brought to Malta to work on large-scale construction projects.

“It is obvious that construction workers employed by a big Turkish company are being deployed for the development of private mega projects so that these are executed in a timely matter at minimal expense. Normally, people from Turkey need a medical certificate declaring them free from infection in order to be eligible to work in Malta,” Anthony Buttigieg, another of the party's prospective europarliamentarians underscored.

Th PD also said that the government had “completely lost its sense of direction in its frenzy to address a population driven economy and, in the process, is jeopardising our sustainability”.