There seems to be a consensus that Malta’s present ‘pay as you go’ pension system is unsustainable. The root causes of this unsustainability are the relatively low employment rate (56% of the population compared to the average of 64.2% for the EU27 in 2010), and the ageing Maltese population
There have been several attempts to highlight the conditions of precarious workers in Malta. Toni Zarb, Secretary General of the General Workers’ Union (GWU [1]), has raised the issue several times, as has the Green Party Alternattiva Demokratika (AD [2]), which said on 1 May 2011 that no serious
Malta is one of the few EU Member States with a generalised wage indexation system. Every calendar year, wages are adjusted in accordance with the inflation rate as measured in percentage terms by the Retail Price Index (RPI).
The Maltese industrial relations scene changed when Forum Unions Maltin (FORUM [1]), a loose confederation of trade unions, was set up in 2004. It was later reinforced by the affiliation of the Malta Union of Teachers (MUT [2]) in 2009, after it withdrew from the Confederation of Malta Trade Unions
Maltese football players can be professional or amateur. A player who is paid for participating in any activity connected with football is registered as a professional and can be full-time or part-time players. A full–time professional player is defined as one whose only, or principal, occupation is
Malta’s two largest trade unions, the General Workers’ Union (GWU [1]) and the Malta Workers’ Union (UHM [2]) asked the government to offset the energy price rises by revising the weightings in the Retail Price Index in order to reflect the changing consumption patterns of the Maltese people. [1]
During the 2009 financial year Air Malta, a state-owned company, registered a loss of €31 million. Losses for 2010 are projected to amount to €51 million. As these accumulating losses pose a serious threat to the economic viability of the company, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi has started to make
Maltese law already provides for the European minimum of 14 weeks of maternity leave, paid in full by employers. The employers’ associations dislike the new proposal because they say it would, according to a study [1] conducted by the Malta Business Bureau (MBB [2]), cost the employers an extra €12
The shortage of nurses has for long been a contentious issue between the Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses (MUMN [1]) and the government (MT0812039I [2]). The union says that despite an agreement signed with government in 2007, the number of new graduates in nursing has not matched the demand. MUMN