Former Labour Party leader and ex-Prime Minister Alfred Sant has weighed in on the ongoing debate over MPs’ pay increases, recalling his own experience when he tried to reject a salary rise as Opposition Leader in the early 1990s – only to see the money “disappear” after depositing it in court.
In an opinion piece today, Sant reflected on Opposition Leader Alex Borg’s decision not to accept the recent increase in parliamentary remuneration, which came as part of the wider adjustment to civil service pay under the latest collective agreement.
“I had to smile on hearing the news,” Sant wrote, “for I recalled how as leader of the opposition in 1992, I too made the same decision.”
At the time, the Fenech Adami administration had introduced what Sant described as “a whopping rise” in ministers’ salaries – and included the opposition leader in the package. There were no formal mechanisms then linking political pay to the civil service, as exist today.
Sant said he viewed the increase as a government tactic to make him appear complicit in the decision to raise politicians’ pay, and therefore opted to reject it. However, he found that there was no administrative way to block the payment at source, so he began depositing the extra income in court.
“It totally disappeared – I don’t know where,” he wrote. “Since then, I never ever heard anything about those funds.”
The recent remuneration revision for ministers has stirred public discussion, with Borg saying he would not accept the higher pay amid ongoing economic pressures on households. The Opposition decried the €1,700 yearly rise, comparing it to the meagre €242 pocketed by all workers, with the government replying that the raise is tied to the public service collective agreement.
Alfred Sant’s article may be seen here
