Bidders awarded government contracts for cleaning, security and clerical services cannot engage workers as self-employed, Employment Minister Dolores Cristina announced in Parliament.
EU survey found that 90 per cent of Maltese workers are confident of keeping their job in the near future
Winding up the debate on the financial estimates of the Employment and Training Corporation, Mrs Cristina said contractors had also to submit a list of employees and their monthly pay slips to the government to ensure such conditions were observed. This also applied in the case of sub-contracting.
The minister, who declared that this was proof that the government was addressing the problem of precarious work, was answering directly opposition spokesperson Marie Louise Coleiro Preca who said the 500 care workers employed by a contractor in the health sector were still without any compensation after the Board of Inquiry had concluded, two months ago, that they were being paid wages under a wages order issued 34 years ago and which had not been updated.
These care workers, Mrs Coleiro Preca said, were being paid €3,000 less a year than government employees doing the same work. “This was cheap labour and a form of modern slavery.”
Mrs Coleiro Preca said that, while three years ago former Minister John Dalli had written to the contracts’ division and Dr Gonzi that wages for cleaners had to be €5.66 an hour, the government had a few days ago awarded a three-year contract for cleaning services at St Vincent de Paul home at €5.69 an hour. This latter sum included profit, wages, cost of supplies, administrative expenses and VAT. The contract for cleaning services in health centres had been awarded at €4.90 per hour. There were other cleaners under contract who were being paid €2.76 per hour. Other underpaid workers included security guards.
The ETC financial estimates, which were later approved by 35 votes and 34 against after a division, amount to €10.8 million together with another €5 million in EU funds.
Mrs Cristina said that the number of early school leavers dropped from 45 to 32 per cent and would reach the EU rate of 29 per cent much earlier than target year of 2020. Early school leavers could enter in a three-year training scheme while receiving stipends.
In the first nine months of this year, the ETC trained more than 11,000 workers, an increase of 4,000 over 2009. It was also addressing the issue of skills mismatching.
Minister Cristina said that, at 6.7 per cent, Malta’s unemployment rate was the fifth lowest in the EU because government efforts to safeguard jobs and create confidence had given results. Foreign investment in 2010 had increased by €251 million to €792 million when compared to 2009.
The female participation in work has increased from 32 to 40.5 per cent; 78 per cent of the 4,000 people who had found work were employed on a full-time basis.
People working part-time only included women and elderly persons who decided working reduced hours. An EU survey on perception among employees found that 90 per cent of Maltese workers were confident of keeping their job in the near future. This rate was much higher than in other EU states where the average stood at around 70 per cent.
The number of employees in the public sector increased because a number of temporary workers in the health sector had become regular employees.
Minister Cristina belied Anġlu Farrugia (PL) saying participants on the work trial scheme gained a 20-hour work experience a week for which they were paid €80 a week while they still received their social assistance benefits.
The academic subsidy scheme launched last year for digital media and financial services for persons over 21 proved very popular
More informative campaigns were needed to attract more minimum wage earners to a training scheme which would help them obtain better qualifications to have better work opportunities. The academic subsidy scheme launched last year for digital media and financial services for persons over 21 proved very popular. People who resigned from the community work scheme while registering for work, did so because they had found regular employment.
Mrs Cristina spoke of opportunities for workers with special needs and said that the country had not given enough acknowledgement to the contribution these persons were giving. However, she pointed out that there were employers who employed such workers only for the duration of the scheme and said that the corporation would look into the matter.
At the end of the sitting, the House also approved by 35 votes for and 34 against the votes of the Occupational Health and Safety Authority, the Housing Authority, and Mepa. By the same token, members defeated opposition amendments and approved the general estimates of the Ministry for Gozo, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry for Resources and Rural Affairs, the Ministry for Infrastructure, Transport and Communications and the Ministry for Justice and Home Affairs.