Opposition employment spokesman Karl Chircop yesterday urged the government to clarify the wording amending the Employment Services Bill.

The Bill is aimed at facilitating the transfer of workers among public sector companies, but while the Maltese version speaks of the "re-employment" of such workers, the word in the English text is "re-deployment."

Dr Chircop said the opposition and trade unions he had spoken too could accept the term "re-deployment" in view of the need for labour force flexibility, but "re-employment" had a totally different meaning, which was unacceptable.

The English version was more in keeping with the spirit of the Bill. A worker who was redeployed more or less retained his conditions of service and seniority whereas re-employment meant starting from scratch, Dr Chircop said.

The Bill was introduced by Education and Employment Minister Louis Galea, who explained that it provided that when the Prime Minister so decided, an employee of a parastatal company undergoing restructuring or reorganisation may be re-deployed to another state-owned company in order not to lose his job.

There had been several instances where the restructuring of public organisations necessitated a reduction of the workforce, and several models had been followed.

In the restructuring of PBS, the government had introduced a voluntary redundancy scheme while some workers were redeployed to other companies. A number of former Sea Malta employees were also redeployed to public entitles.

At Interprint, in terms of the collective agreement, workers were paid terminal benefits and there was no redeployment.

At Malta Drydocks, some 1,000 workers took up early retirement while 500 others were deployed to a new public company, IPSL and assigned to services in the public sector.

The Constitution provided that recruitment in the public service could only be made through the ETC or after a public exam. Through this amendment, workers who needed to be redeployed from one state company to another would not need to registered for work in the intervening period but could be transferred directly from one company to another.

Dr Galea said the reorganisation of the public sector had to be carried out in the best possible manner, without negatively affecting the labour market. At the same time, where possible, vacancies in the public sector and the civil service were being filled through redeployment, rather than outside recruitment. The government wanted to make more efficient use of all workers at its disposal.

Turning to the employment sector in general, the minister said the sector was generally stable, although over the past years there had been a shift from employment in manufacturing to services.

The government wanted to see growth in the gainfully occupied population, especially through stronger participation by women.

At the same time, it wanted more young people to further their education before entering the labour market. In this context, progress made over the past few weeks was encouraging, with 10 per cent more young people continuing to study over the past four years, the highest increase in the EU.

At the other end of the scale, the number of people who retired was expected to increase as the baby boomers reached retirement age. In 2005 alone, the number of people who retired was 13,200 higher than the average.

It was significant that despite the increase in the number of people who retired and the growing number of young people who continued to study, the gainfully occupied population remained stable. Unemployment had also not fluctuated much.

All this showed that the economy was reacting well to changes in international markets and to the domestic restructuring processes.

Dr Galea said the ETC was increasingly effective in the training it provided to over 7,000 applicants last year. It was also more successful in job placement and it was reacting quickly to help workers who faced dismissal. Over the coming year more funds would be allocated to the redundancy and redeployment unit to help employers and retrain workers who were made redundant.

There was also a proposal to use EU funds to strengthen guidance services for workers. More funds would also be allocated to help those aged over 40 who were seeking work, the minister said.

After noting the difference between the Maltese and English texts of the Bill, expressed his doubts over whether the Bill went against article 110 (6) of the Constitution, which laid down that recruitment to the public service had to be made through an employment service or after a public examination.

This Bill, he said, seemed to be giving the Prime Minister overriding powers to transfer workers between public sector companies and between the civil service and the wider public service. He would therefore effectively override the unions and the Public Service Commission and, if the Maltese text applied, change workers' conditions at a stroke.

Parliament had a duty to ensure it did not legislate in a way that went against the entrenched clauses of the Constitution.

Dr Chircop in his speech criticised the way how workers who were to be retained or retired at Malta Shipyards and PBS were selected. He said the workforce at the shipyards had been reduced to such an extent that the 'yard was now swarming with foreign workers.

It was important to make sure that the real purpose of the Bill was to improve flexibility, rather than to make it easier for the government to discriminate. It was unfortunate that the government did not seem to have consulted the unions about this Bill, more so as its provisions could well override the Public Service Commission, which monitored recruitment in the civil service.

Speaking on the labour sector, Dr Chircop said the government had failed to significantly raise women's participation in the labour force. One reason for this failure was a lack of child-minding facilities.

He hoped the SmartCity project would be a success, providing much needed job opportunities, but workers had to be prepared for such opportunities. Malta currently had a shortage of IT workers.

Indeed, ETC courses needed to be skilled both at labour market needs and the type of job seekers. At present, most of those registering for work were unskilled, yet most courses were addressed at semi-skilled and skilled workers.

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