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General Workers’ Union and the Union Haddiema Maghqudin separately slammed the budget for increasing hardships on the working class without committing government and employers.
GWU said the budget will leave workers and pensioners in a much worse situation without getting the government anywhere near its declared targets.
The union said that instead of striking a balance and distributing hardships evenly across different sectors of society, the onus was put on workers and pensioners.
The rise in the cost of living is not reflected in the Lm1.75 cost of living increase, GWU said, when one considers the electricity and water surcharge, the increase in the public transport fares, the eco-tax, increase in mobile telephone service charge and other price hikes.
Union Haddiema Maghqudin said the budget proved how right it was to insist on reaching a social pact which would commit government and employers and not just the workers.
UHM said the budget launched several initiatives to revive the economy, the union said it was expecting much stronger signals against VAT evaders.
Fiscal measures introduced in this budget will increase hardships for workers, the union said.
UHM said it will remain striving to reach a national social pact so that government will not keep taking unilateral decisions against workers’ interests.
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