Only 62 former shipyard workers still without a job - Gonzi

Only 62 of the nearly 800 shipyard workers who took up early retirement schemes were still registering for work, Social Policy Minister Lawrence Gonzi told parliament last night.

Winding up the debate on the estimates of the Employment and Training Corporation, (ETC), the minister said a "revolution" had been carried out in the labour sector over the past four years including extensive legislative changes, economic restructuring, the setting up of new training institutions such as MCAST, and significant improvement in the way the ETC operated.

Reacting to remarks by the opposition, Dr Gonzi said that a drop which had been registered in the labour supply was influenced by several early retirement schemes introduced by both the private and public sectors.

The labour supply was also affected by the 2,071 students at MCAST who had continued studying instead of going to work.

The minister announced that cabinet had approved a scheme to top up the ETC allowance given to former drug addicts who would have followed recovery programmes, so that it would reach the minimum wage.

Earlier in his speech, Dr Gonzi said it was shameful that although this debate was aimed at allocating Lm3 million to the ETC, the members of the opposition had not discussed the direction of those funds.

Figures given in the financial report showed that the ETC over the past year had spent less on its administration and was spending a greater portion of its funding on its clients, such as on training.

The ETC also deserved to be praised for its results. The number of job vacancies notified to the corporation had in 1997-98 under the Labour government been 4,687 while in 2001-2002 it was 7,020.

Submission of workers by the ETC to fill vacancies had risen from 61,074 in 1997-98 to 112,924 over the past year. The number of actual job placements had risen from 1,878 in 1997-98 to 3,162 over the past year.

Dr Gonzi said that the Economic Survey published with the budget showed that the average wage had increased from Lm97 in 1999 to Lm109 in 2002.

Referring to remarks that the number of jobs in the furniture sector had dropped after liberalisation of that sector, Dr Gonzi said that while it was true that the number of jobs had decreased, the value of sales was increasing year to year as was the value of wages, investment and export. Through the restructuring process, owners were investing in new machinery which required less people, rendering the country more competitive.

Dr Gonzi said the government and the ETC were working on National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) and an exercise was being carried out with experts in Scotland for the application in Malta of standards which had already been developed there.

The opposition, he said, frequently mentioned the fact that there were 2,800 redundancies over the past year. This, he said, was a natural process. In 1997, when Labour was in government there had been 2,257 dismissals. The difference now was that the ETC was better geared to find alternative jobs for those workers. Legislation had also been enacted to better protect the workers.

Concluding, Dr Gonzi said the government was allocating Lm3 million to the ETC for a programme of work centred around increasing the participation rate in the labour sector, the implementation of the gender equality action plan, the introduction of child care facilities and the continuation of the various training courses, such as those on IT literacy.

Parliamentary Secretary Antoine Mifsud Bonnici at the opening of the debate said the corporation was giving sterling work in matching workers to job vacancies and in training workers.

He said that the number of gainfully occupied between September 1998 and last September had risen by more than 3,000. The number of working women had increased by 2,739, and men by 261.

Public sector employment had dropped by 2,189 during the same period and unemployment had dropped by 128. In part one of the employment register alone, the number of people registering for work had dropped by 413.

Dr Mifsud Bonnici said the ETC was giving particular attention to the problem of the long term unemployed, the unemployed who were aged over 40, and people with disabilities.

At the end of September 2002, just under 37 per cent of the unemployed were aged 40 and over.

The corporation had drawn up the Employment Training Placement Scheme (ETPS) and the Community Work Scheme (CWS) to help such people. Under the former, employers were given financial assistance to provide employment and training to the unemployed in this category. In the year up to October 2002, 132 had benefited from this scheme.

A total of 34 unemployed aged over 40 took part in the CWS, but it was felt that local councils and NGOs were not participating enough in the scheme and the ETC was looking into the situation.

Dr Mifsud Bonnici said yet another scheme, set up in July last year, was the Training and Employment Exposure Scheme (TEES). The scheme offered six months of training to participants followed by six months of direct work exposure. Employers were given financial subsidies when they engaged TEES trainees indefinitely.

Dr Mifsud Bonnici said 2,952 people had been registering for work for more than a year and were considered as long term unemployed. They included 688 who had been registering for five years. He said 519 long term unemployed had followed ETC courses, 100 were placed in direct employment and 68 enrolled under the ETPS and the CWS schemes. Jobs had also been found for 68 of the very long term unemployed.

Dr Mifsud Bonnici observed that the problem of employment for people aged under 40 was not restricted to Malta, to the extent that the EU had laid down that one could not discriminate against people aged over 40 during recruitment and training.

The ETC, Dr Mifsud Bonnici said, was also seeking to encourage more women to go out to work and it had set up the Empowerment Skills for Women Programme to train women who intended to return to the labour market.

The majority of the 68 participants in the programme were aged 40-49.

Dr Mifsud Bonnici said this year had seen an intensive restructuring of the ETC with assistance from the FAS Ireland agency. New job centres had also been opened in Cospicua and Mosta.

Special programmes had been introduced for persons with disabilities and a training scheme for people at the correctional facilities was also started.

Concluding, Dr Mifsud Bonnici criticised the opposition for trying to scare factory workers over EU membership. He insisted that accession would be good for the Maltese manufacturing sector, a view confirmed by, among others, the German ambassador, in an interview given to The Times.

Nationalist MP Helen D'Amato, continuing on the same theme, said employers knew that EU membership would open up new opportunities for their firms and they were preparing themselves accordingly. Those producing for the domestic sector also knew that the market would be liberalised even if Malta did not join the EU.

The ETC was comfortable with the fact that Malta would be joining the EU. It had been working with EU agencies for years and was basing its work on EU employment strategies, prepared to meet the challenges EU membership would offer.

Wherever markets were liberalised, jobs had increased even faster than projected. In the furniture sector in Malta, the producers themselves called for the removal of levies to be brought forward. Indeed the ETC's employment barometer showed that job opportunities would rise with EU membership.

The opposition, she said, often complained about people who were struck off the employment register. Yet in 1997 there were 1,200 strike-offs. Was this done to reduce the unemployment figure?

Ms D'Amato praised the ETC for its efforts to train and find employment for persons with disability and suggested that the progress of such people in the labour sector should be followed up.

She also welcomed the corporation's gender equality action plan.

Nationalist MP Jean Pierre Farrugia said that although the number of job vacancies had dropped, placements in the private sector had increased by around 500 over the past year. This showed how effective the ETC was.

Dr Farrugia said wages in Malta had risen over the years rendering the local product less competitive yet many workers complained that they were earning too little as the standard of living here was high.

Returning to cheap labour was out of question, and costs of production therefore had to be reduced.

In 2001 Malta exported Lm1.6 million worth of products to Egypt, Lm1.9 million to Tunisia, Lm700,000 to Morocco, Lm21 million to Libya and Lm150,000 to Algeria.

The EU had reciprocal free trade agreements with all these countries, which meant that exports to these countries would be duty free and much more competitive once Malta joined the EU.

Dr Farrugia underlined the importance of the training courses held by the ETC. He observed that truancy figures by locality issued by the Department of Education tallied with the hometown where most people registering for elementary occupations lived. Did the ETC's officials go to schools to try to encourage youngsters to take their schooling more seriously?

Nationalist MP Michael Bonnici said the arrangements made by the government in the EU membership talks with regard to the free movement of workers protected Maltese workers.

But the real advantage of EU membership was that it would lead to the creation of more jobs.

The opposition was saying that many students were not finding employment once they completed their schooling. Yet in the 16-19 age group the number of unemployed had dropped from 1,185 under Labour to 970 in June 2002. In the 30 to 39 age group, the number dropped from 1,622 under Labour to 1,394 last June.

It was incredible that despite the economic slow-down nearly 2,000 jobs were found for young people.

With good enforcement of the labour laws, he was sure that the unemployment figures would be further reduced - 1,500 persons were struck off the employment register last year for violating the law, such as by working while registering as unemployed.

Dr Frans Agius (PN) said the ETC had an important role in the economic restructuring Malta was going through. It was not the ETC's role to create jobs, but to train workers and match available labour with vacancies.

Workers should not be scared of restructuring since it was aimed at making Malta more competitive. It was true that some factories had had to close, but most workers were being quickly absorbed by other firms. There was no doubt that unemployment existed, but the situation was not as alarming as the opposition made it out to be.

Dr Agius referred to the entrepreneurship scheme operated by the ETC, saying it was an example of how the corporation was seeking to train workers in various areas. The training provided under this scheme was allied to the Enterprise Grant which enabled participants to learn about business and then start off on their own.

The estimates were approved after a division, with the opposition voting against.

Opposition speakers are being reported separately.