Today, a new collective agreement has been signed for public service employees. This is the fifth collective agreement for public servants, but the first for an eight-year period. The goal is to ensure greater stability, while the public administration continues to implement the necessary changes, invest in human resources and provide quality service. The new agreement amounts to about 30,000 employees and represents an effort of 17 million euros for 2017 and will increase to 20.5 million euros by 2024. These include increasing wages and certain allowances. The agreement provides for an increase in the salaries of public administration staff from the first year of its entry into force. This increase amounts to about 16.5 million euros in the first year and will reach about 20 million euros by the expiration of the agreement. The agreement also ensures that workers who continue to work after reaching retirement age do not lose their right to early retirement leave, but can now benefit from it after retirement. Workers who work shifts receive a change in their shift work allowance. Workers who have a necessary additional qualification for their duties benefit from an increase in the qualification allowance.
This goes hand in hand with the public administration`s vision of further improving the skills of its workforce. This objective is also achieved by the Institute of Public Services, which today is not only a training centre for public administration staff, but also a legal entity created in partnership with the University of Malta and MCAST. The new collective agreement was signed by the General Union of Workers (GWU), the Malta Chamber of Psychologists (MCP), the Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses (MUMN), the Malta Union of Teachers (MUT), the Malta Medical Association (MAM), U`M – Voice of the Workers and the Union of Architects and Engineers within the Civil Service. A survey conducted by the National Trade Union Forum (NFTU) in the last quarter of 2014 shows that 55.8% of employees have a collective agreement in the workplace. The survey was based on a sample of 781 employees representing all Maltese workers. This figure excludes workers who are not sure whether or not they have a collective agreement in the workplace. The NFTU is made up of 22 trade unions (NFTU, 2015). The Malta Economic and Social Development Council (MCESD) is a national tripartite body that, as an advisory council of the Maltese government, provides advice and recommendations on economic and social issues. The Council has the legal personality, is appointed by the Prime Minister and consists of the following members: a president; Vice-President appointed by the Prime Minister to the Public Service; 10 persons appointed by representative organisations of employers and national workers have set up bodies; The Chairman of the Gozo Regional Committee, by law; and chair of the Committee on Civil Society (source: Malta Council for Economic and Social Development Act 2001). The law provides for the negotiation of collective agreements between « an employer or one or more employer organizations and the organization or organization of workers representing workers. » In practice, they are generally negotiated between a single employer and one or perhaps two unions, although the tendency for different unions to represent different parts of the staff and sign separate agreements is increasingly present. At Air Malta, for example, there are four separate unions representing pilots, cabin crew, engineers and industrial and non-industrial personnel.
Of the 23 agreements and other treaties and other texts signed in 2011, 16 were signed by the GWU, 5 by the UHM, one by MUMN and one by the Maltese Dockers Union.4 Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said that the government`s objective was to be a model employer.