The Malta Independent
20th August 2004
John and Tony are identical twins now well past their mid-forties.` Many who have known them for decades still have problems in distinguishing one from the other and often when I meet one of them I address him jokingly by the surname.` In reality I would be gaining time to identify that something which ultimately helps me to tell one from the other.
Yet our society treats them very unequally.
John is a central government employee. He presumably performs his work as good as any other government employee and probably somewhat better than average.` He has no job security problems and is confident that his union will manage to get some additional benefits when the collective agreement negotiations ultimately draw to a conclusion. Having acceded to government employment pre - 1979 he is quite relaxed about the adequacy of his retirement pension even though he accepts that by the time his turn comes he will have to wait for retirement beyond age 61.
John enjoys his summer half days better than most of us and in summer it is easier to identify him from his twin bother purely because he carries a deeper tan. Often I meet him when I walk down Republic Street and as this happens at different times of the day I tend to wonder how many lunch breaks he enjoys.
Tony works in a middle management position with a manufacturing company which has been established here since the seventies. Thankfully this foreign owned export company has done well and has continued to invest in technology so that it has stayed here even though the original attraction of low wage cost is long gone.
The fact that Tony joined the company as a machine operator and has climbed the ranks to middle management is a good indication that he was considered by his employer well worth his wages and worth investing in through training and re-training.
However recently when I met Tony I could see that he was not so sure as himself as he used to be. When we passed from the first cup of coffee to the second, Tony started to open up. He was telling me that things at his workplace are not what they used to be, especially since his company moved to a new factory which was built by government purposely for their needs.
The general message that is being sent from the management to the shop-floor is that unless efficiency gains are registered to a stepped up, not just incremental, degree, the investors will have to consider seriously shifting part or the whole of their operations to a more competitive location. In short, the company is finding it difficult to remain competitive in the fierce global village and the Malta operations have become insufficiently profitable.
Tony expressed his worry that middle and senior management are having to spend a few hours a week doing production work alongside the operators to drive more forcefully the message that things are tough and changes have to be accepted rather than resisted if the employment is to be protected.
When I asked what sort of changes are being considered Tony said that these are being negotiated between the senior management and the union but the general message is that the forthcoming round of negotiations for renewal of the collective agreement will not take the normal process of the union making requests for general improvement in employment conditions and management watering them down. It would be the management that will make proposals to roll back some of the benefits that had been granted in the past,the cost of which is no longer compatible with the maintenance of corporate competitiveness.
John and Tony are identical twins in the eyes of all but they are unequal in the way the society we have built is treating them. We have built a system that is rewarding the inefficient by offering job security, improving conditions and assured pensions. It is rewarding those who have followed the national trait of trading their vote with political favours to get jobs in the public sector.
The system is conversely punishing those who shown initiative in seeking jobs in the private sector where the salary has to be earned many times over each and every month. It is punishing with insecurity and loss of benefits the most efficient amongst our productive resources.
This is neither fair nor social and I wonder how the unions continue feeding the system rather than insist on a re-balancing of the rights and obligations of employees across the whole employment spectrum. Punishing the efficient and stroking the inefficient is no way to bring about a serious re-structuring which needs implementation over a relatively long number of years. When we are half way there, an election will loom on the horizon giving further impetus to the pressure of productive units in the private sector to trade their political privileges for a place amongst the inefficient in the public sector. And the whole re-structuring will get undone and the problems will get bigger and we will dream some other grand plan with fifty five objectives of how we are supposed to create jobs and wealth.
Before the cosy economists in the public sector continue preaching the virtues of stability in monetary and exchange rate policy they should take heed of this reality and consider whether we want to maintain stability at the current uncompetitive levels which would continue to throw the whole onus of adjustment on the productive sector whilst keeping inefficient sector well protected and contented. Where are the economists of the private sector.
20th August 2004
John and Tony are identical twins now well past their mid-forties.` Many who have known them for decades still have problems in distinguishing one from the other and often when I meet one of them I address him jokingly by the surname.` In reality I would be gaining time to identify that something which ultimately helps me to tell one from the other. Yet our society treats them very unequally.
John is a central government employee. He presumably performs his work as good as any other government employee and probably somewhat better than average.` He has no job security problems and is confident that his union will manage to get some additional benefits when the collective agreement negotiations ultimately draw to a conclusion. Having acceded to government employment pre - 1979 he is quite relaxed about the adequacy of his retirement pension even though he accepts that by the time his turn comes he will have to wait for retirement beyond age 61.
John enjoys his summer half days better than most of us and in summer it is easier to identify him from his twin bother purely because he carries a deeper tan. Often I meet him when I walk down Republic Street and as this happens at different times of the day I tend to wonder how many lunch breaks he enjoys.
Tony works in a middle management position with a manufacturing company which has been established here since the seventies. Thankfully this foreign owned export company has done well and has continued to invest in technology so that it has stayed here even though the original attraction of low wage cost is long gone.
The fact that Tony joined the company as a machine operator and has climbed the ranks to middle management is a good indication that he was considered by his employer well worth his wages and worth investing in through training and re-training.
However recently when I met Tony I could see that he was not so sure as himself as he used to be. When we passed from the first cup of coffee to the second, Tony started to open up. He was telling me that things at his workplace are not what they used to be, especially since his company moved to a new factory which was built by government purposely for their needs.
The general message that is being sent from the management to the shop-floor is that unless efficiency gains are registered to a stepped up, not just incremental, degree, the investors will have to consider seriously shifting part or the whole of their operations to a more competitive location. In short, the company is finding it difficult to remain competitive in the fierce global village and the Malta operations have become insufficiently profitable.
Tony expressed his worry that middle and senior management are having to spend a few hours a week doing production work alongside the operators to drive more forcefully the message that things are tough and changes have to be accepted rather than resisted if the employment is to be protected.
When I asked what sort of changes are being considered Tony said that these are being negotiated between the senior management and the union but the general message is that the forthcoming round of negotiations for renewal of the collective agreement will not take the normal process of the union making requests for general improvement in employment conditions and management watering them down. It would be the management that will make proposals to roll back some of the benefits that had been granted in the past,the cost of which is no longer compatible with the maintenance of corporate competitiveness.
John and Tony are identical twins in the eyes of all but they are unequal in the way the society we have built is treating them. We have built a system that is rewarding the inefficient by offering job security, improving conditions and assured pensions. It is rewarding those who have followed the national trait of trading their vote with political favours to get jobs in the public sector.
The system is conversely punishing those who shown initiative in seeking jobs in the private sector where the salary has to be earned many times over each and every month. It is punishing with insecurity and loss of benefits the most efficient amongst our productive resources.
This is neither fair nor social and I wonder how the unions continue feeding the system rather than insist on a re-balancing of the rights and obligations of employees across the whole employment spectrum. Punishing the efficient and stroking the inefficient is no way to bring about a serious re-structuring which needs implementation over a relatively long number of years. When we are half way there, an election will loom on the horizon giving further impetus to the pressure of productive units in the private sector to trade their political privileges for a place amongst the inefficient in the public sector. And the whole re-structuring will get undone and the problems will get bigger and we will dream some other grand plan with fifty five objectives of how we are supposed to create jobs and wealth.
Before the cosy economists in the public sector continue preaching the virtues of stability in monetary and exchange rate policy they should take heed of this reality and consider whether we want to maintain stability at the current uncompetitive levels which would continue to throw the whole onus of adjustment on the productive sector whilst keeping inefficient sector well protected and contented. Where are the economists of the private sector.
No comments:
Post a Comment