Workers must look at Europe

An overview report on working conditions in Europe was published by the European Foundation for the Improvement of Working and Living Conditions.

... the number of non-unionised Maltese workers may be higher than official statistics indicate- Saviour Rizzo

The report is based on the findings of a survey conducted in the 27 EU member states, the four candidate countries (Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Turkey), the two potential candidates (Albania and Kosovo) and Norway, a member of the European Free Trade Association.

It reveals that there are areas where Malta converges with the European standards and others where there are wide divergences.

One of the areas where Malta shows lack of symmetry with the European mainland is the composition of its labour force.

The gap between the participation rate of male and female workers in Malta – 33.1 per cent – is the highest among EU member states. Maybe this explains why the change from the traditional male breadwinner family model to the two-earner or dual worker model in Malta has not yet reached the same European levels.

Among the EU member states, Malta has the highest percentage (42 per cent) of the traditional male breadwinner households. The percentage of Maltese households with both spouses working full time is 33 per cent.

The Netherlands, the only EU member state with a lower percentage than Malta of households with both partners working full time, has a very high proportion of households with one partner working full time and one partner part time. The high number of the latter type of households, defined in the report as modified male breadwinner households, makes The Netherlands the country with the highest percentage of two-earner households in Europe.

An area where Malta shows symmetrical but also assymetrical characteristics with Europe is employment relations.

With 61per cent of Maltese workers employed on an indefinite contract, Malta fares very well in the standard employment relationships. This percentage is surpassed only by Ireland – 62 per cent.

The flip side of this image, however, provides a completely opposite picture about non-standard employment. The data emanating from this survey indicates that 27 per cent of Maltese workers have no employment contract.

Non-standard employment includes the apprenticeships or training contracts which may offer opportunities for workers, generally young workers in the labour market. However, even making allowances for the number of trainees and apprentices working in the Maltese labour market, given that the EU average of workers without contract is five per cent, the percentage of Maltese workers with no contract is relatively high. Only in Cyprus (28 per cent) and Greece (28 per cent) one finds a higher percentage of workers with no contract.

The restructuring process aimed at shifting to higher value economic activities must have left its toll on employment relations in Malta as workers tend to be exposed to changes at their workplace much more than their European counterparts. During 2007-2010, about 40 per cent of workers had experienced an organisational change at their place of work, which consists of new processes of technology combined with restructuring or reorganisation. The only EU member state with a higher percentage of workers reporting such experiences is Finland.

It is in the interrelationships at the workplace where Malta comes close to the EU average.

About 12 per cent of female workers and nine per cent of male workers report being victims of adverse social behaviour such as verbal abuse, unwanted sexual attention, threats and humiliating behaviour. This is lower than the European average of 15 per cent for women and 12 per cent of men. In this regard, Malta is near the middle of the table as there are12 European countries which report a lower incidence of this behaviour

As regards workers’ representativeness at the workplace, in spite of its relatively high trade union density, Malta lags behind. The majority of workers do not have a representative at their workplace. Only 42 per cent of workers report having such a representative.

This percentage does not tally with the official statistics about Maltese trade union density, which has been consistently well above 50 per cent for the last two decades. This survey is suggesting that the number of non-unionised Maltese workers may be higher than official statistics indicate.

Paradoxically, France, with one of the lowest trade union densities in Europe, has a much higher percentage of workers (52 per cent) who report that they have representative at the place of work.

The findings of this survey offer a kaleidoscopic view of the working conditions and employment relations in Malta. The rotation of the kaleidoscope reveals patterns that are not always symmetrical with those in Europe.

The dissimilar characteristics should only be cause of concern if or where they fall short of the principles of the social market economy, held to be the foundations of the model for the EU social policy.