A restaurant owner does not pay his new workers for the first two days, asks them to buy uniforms out their own pockets and then fires them after a couple of weeks, according to the General Workers’ Union chief.

This was an example of precarious work practices in the hospitality sector, to which the union was now shifting its focus, GWU general secretary Tony Zarb said yesterday.

In recent months the union has focused on precarious work in the cleaning, security and care work sectors. It has in the meantime received several complaints from those within the hospitality sector.

Mr Zarb, speaking during the biannual conference about the sector, said a five-star hotel was forcing people – especially foreigners – to work for abusively long hours. Others made it difficult for some of its workers to join a union.

This behaviour should be condemned, he said.

The GWU was prepared to tell the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association who these employers were as long as the necessary steps were taken.

Mr Zarb called for a holistic plan for the sector which would include training and according a status to tourism workers.

He reiterated that he had no intention of withdrawing any of his declarations about a care workers company that was “toying around with working conditions”.

No lawyer’s letter will shut the union’s mouth

“No lawyer’s letter will shut the union’s mouth,” he said.

Last week, Support Services Limited, which provides the services of care workers, warned Mr Zarb to stop making insinuations about the company, adding it would hold him responsible for any damages it suffered.

Yesterday Mr Zarb challenged the employer to give the workers a copy of the collective agreement which it claimed had improved their job conditions.

He said this agreement was reached with a union that had been set up by the employer and at no point did the care workers meet to approve it.

He again called on the Government not to award contracts to companies in the cleaning sector that employed people under precarious conditions.