Issues raised by the director general of the Chamber for Small and Medium Enterprises – GRTU, Vince Farrugia, in three separate contributions to this newspaper need to be corrected and clarified.
The Ministry for Social Dialogue, Consumer Affairs and Civil Liberties raised the issue of precarious employment at MCESD level, where the GRTU is represented. Farrugia, or his representative, failed to attend any of these meetings.
Discussions to address this agenda at MCESD were held during three separate meetings where it was made clear that: inaction in the face of this phenomenon was not an option; the potential for unethical/illegal work practices can occur anywhere and are not limited to those providing services on government tenders.
It is for the party awarding tenders, in this case the government, to decide on the conditions that have to be observed by the bidder. These are separate and distinct from, and may go beyond, any minimum statutory requirements; and the government has taken a policy decision that publicly-funded tenders will include clauses to safeguard employment rights aimed at avoiding, apart from that which is illegal, any dubious or unethical employment practices.
Thus, the public procurement agency is simply implementing government policy on the conditions the government feels that a successful bidder for publicly-funded tenders has to abide by.
It is a mistake when Farrugia infers that this agency is subject to the inspectorates of other public sector institutions.
It is again incorrect for him to aver that the Director of Labour expects the national procurement agency to do his work for him or has powers over the execution of contracts worth millions of euros.
The Director of Labour has never had, and does not have, any remit regarding the award of tenders. This is a ridiculous and wholly inaccurate assertion.
The Government remains committed to harnessing its limited resources and increasing the synergy between government entities to ensure that government policy to combat illegal/unethical working practices resulting in poor working conditions is implemented as cohesively and effectively as possible.
It is unacceptable that public funds are used to help sustain and encourage poor working conditions, however involuntarily on the part of the Government.
It must be emphasised that the social partners attending the MCESD meetings had the opportunity to make their own presentations, to debate, comment and ask for clarifications on what had been presented and was being discussed. Indeed, a number of them made formal presentations on this issue, which enriched the debate. It is to be pointed out that, in the second meeting held, Minister Helena Dalli made it clear that the Government had no intention of stopping sub-contracting or of excluding self-employed persons from the award of government tenders.
In this respect, it is again being clarified that when the point was raised that a guarantee will be required that the services provided will not be subcontracted to third parties, such a limitation on subcontracting is strictly limited to cases where the subcontractor being awarded work by the bidder has employees of the bidder.
It is unacceptable that public funds are used to help sustain and encourage poor working conditions
These employees are also in the employ of the sub-contractor and are carrying out, with the sub-contractor, the same or very similar duties as those in their contract of employment with the bidder. This is to avoid the common practice of having employees nominally registered on a second company and awarding extra hours to the same employee who is conveniently registered on another company and has the extra hours paid at a flat rate rather than at overtime rate.
With regard to the guarantee that the contractual work will not be carried out by self-employed persons but solely by employees of the bidder, again, this exclusion does not apply to bona fide self-employed individuals but is meant solely to guarantee that no work will be carried out by persons designated falsely as self-employed where their actual employment status in terms of the Employment Status National Standard Order, LN 44/2012 is that of an employee.
Farrugia’s conclusion that this is “the greatest blow suffered by small businesses ever” is incomprehensible.
Law-abiding, ethical employers, whether of SMEs or other enterprises, are unaffected. This is a considerable step forward to those employees whose employers, a minority, prefer unethical and dubious work practices negatively affecting working conditions. If Farrugia is not particularly interested in the plight of these people, he should at least note that these tender conditions also try to ensure that there is a level playing field between bidders, something which the Government is sure is in the interest of the absolute majority of all employers, including GRTU members.
For reasons of his own, Farrugia has sought in the last few weeks to try to stir up a wave of discontent about the whole issue. These efforts do not seem, however, to have captured the imagination or the interest of readers of this newspaper.
In fact, even the editorial of Times of Malta (August 15) abruptly dismissed Farrugia’s protestations. This editorial rejected the accusation that the Government’s initiative to stop precarious employment was meant to make it impossible for small businesses to get their share of government work. On the contrary, the editorial considered the Government’s action as a means of promoting transparency and accountability and ensuring good corporate social responsibility.
Farrugia’s persistent efforts to equate the Government’s policy to combat illegal and unethical work practices resulting in poor and unacceptable working conditions with “the greatest blow suffered by small business ever” have floundered. It is very rich of him to not attend meetings and then be the only one to speak out in disagreement. A serious person would comment in the proper forum first. But Farrugia would not do that and this is why he is so wide of the mark.
Despite his public denouncement of the newly-introduced policy regarding precarious employment insofar as public procurement rules are concerned, the Government hastens to assure readers that these procedures will help to ensure that unethical and dubious work practices, which negatively affect the working conditions of employees and are an affront to their dignity, are on their way out.
This is what the electorate was promised.
Jonathan Brimmer is communications coordinator for the Ministry for Social Dialogue, Consumer Affairs and Civil Liberties.