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Matthew Vella
The grand total of Lm8,242,049 has been paid in summer overtime for public sector workers who stayed on at work during the half-days for the months of July, August and September between 2000 and July 2004, just part of the actual cost for switching off the public sector at one ‘o’ clock in the afternoon throughout the summer.
According to figures released in Parliament, an average of Lm1.9 million has been paid every year since 2000 in overtime wages for civil servants who throughout the summer season are on half-days, a practice which sends most government departments on a ‘go slow’ mode.
In the summer of 2003, a total of Lm1.7 million was paid to civil servants, the lowest since 2000, when workers were paid a total of Lm1.8 million. The highest figure was in 2001, Lm2.1 million, which later abated to Lm2 million in 2002.
In July this year, overtime paid registered the lowest figure in five years at Lm476,000 – the average monthly overtime bill is Lm647,000 for every summer month.
The validity of prolonging half-days in the public sector in summer has come under attack from a report presented by the Malta Council for Economic and Social Development’s (MCESD) National Competitiveness Working Committee, chaired by economist Gordon Cordina and MCESD chairman Victor Scicluna. The report, ‘Measures for National Competitiveness,’ was compiled by leaders from the trade unions and employers associations.
They list, amongst those problems created by public bureaucracy, the summer half-days in government entities, especially those essential to the operations of business, namely in the Customs Department, the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs, the Ministry for Rural Affairs and the Environment, and the Malta Enterprise. The working committee cites as an example Finland, which abolished the public sector’s shorter working hours for the summer months.
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