Social Policy Minister John Dalli yesterday called on employers to cooperate more with the authorities in their efforts to combat illegal employment.

Speaking at a breakfast meeting on the employment of foreign workers organised by the Malta Employers' Association, Mr Dalli admitted that the labour market was facing problems because of illegally-employed people.

"Yes, we have problems. From the bureaucratic side it is easy to find excuses not to do something about it but we have to find a solution to this, and you, as employers, have to help us," he said.

Mr Dalli said Malta was facing major problems because of a lack of human resources, even to offer government services, such as in the case of health assistants and health attendants. "Sometimes, our education system is too conservative and courses are too long. This has to be adjusted," he said.

The minister said it was important for the industry to mix foreign with local labour as this helps it remain competitive. However, he insisted, this could not be done at all costs.

Mr Dalli said Malta was experiencing an influx of irregular labour because local employers were choosing to offer inferior working conditions. These things, he said, did not happen by chance and discipline had to start with the employers.

He spoke on the new practice whereby calls for tenders for public contracts demanded details on the working conditions of employees. "We cannot have cowboys winning government tenders because they exploit workers. Bidders have to list working conditions, which will be included in the contract and checked. If the working conditions are not observed employers can have the contract terminated apart from being subjected to other actions," Mr Dalli said.

He added he was working on the setting up of a law enforcement unit within his ministry to replace the present system of different enforcement units in the various entities, such as at the ETC, the Occupational Health and Safety Authority and the Labour Office, among others.

The minister called on employers to assist the government to tackle the "fictitious" list of people on the unemployment register who "are on the list to get the benefits but then do not want to work".

He said in Malta things had to be done "fairly and firmly" in order to solve problems once and for all.

Many employers who spoke at the business breakfast complained that it was taking too long for the authorities to issue permits for foreign workers. Furthermore, third country nationals were subjected to various conditions, including having private health insurance over and above NI contributions, which they were paying. Once a work permit was granted, foreign workers had to apply in person for a residence permit, sometimes having to wait for six hours in a queue.

Raphael Scerri, senior manager of the Employment and Training Corporation's employment services division, explained how the ETC processes applications filed by foreigners to work in Malta.

MEA president Pierre Fava said that, irrespective of the country of origin, all employees deserved to be treated with dignity and that, with better established systems that allow for faster processing of applications where necessary, there will be fewer migrants who will be constrained to work in the informal economy.

He said the phenomenon of foreign workers is a characteristic of a globalisation phenomenon that Malta had to come to terms with. It can be turned to the country's economic advantage if managed properly and "there is no questions that Malta, in its current stage of development, needs foreign workers to reach its full economic potential".