Jobs Plus will start conducting short interviews with those registering for unemployment benefits for under a year, replacing a 26-year practice of having them fingerprinted at job centres at regular intervals.

Jobs Plus chairman Clyde Caruana told the Times of Malta that the new system would not only re-introduce the human element in registering for unemployment but was also expected to curb abuse.

The new procedures, which come into force on Monday, will see those registering for unemployment facing a 20-minute interview every fortnight, during which an employment advisor will ask the person what efforts they have made to find employment.

This will include how many jobs they have applied for, how many curriculum vitae have been sent out and how many interviews they have attended since the previous meeting with the advisor.

We are introducing the human element by meeting people face to face – and this is expected to curb abuse

“Basically, we will see what the person has done to actually find a job – to make sure that they do not just sit on the sofa at home watching television, waiting for something to happen.

“We want to make sure that whoever is on the register is doing something to get off it as quickly as possible,” Mr Caruana said. He added that if the employment advisor was not convinced that any effort had been made and no progress registered, the advisor would issue a ‘strike-off’ – striking the person from the unemployment register.

The person is entitled to lodge an appeal – known as a justification – to be considered by other employment advisors, and the matter would end up before the National Employment Authority.

“The change is part of our rebranding exercise, aimed at increasing contact with people to see what effort they are making to find a job – rather than simply relying on the benefits received,” Mr Caruana said.

He said Jobs Plus had not employed additional people to carry out these meetings, in spite of the fact that they entail time and person-to-person contact.

Mr Caruana also said that there was a new unit of five people, who were out on the beat, meeting employers and beefing up the Jobs Plus vacancy register, while a system is in place which automatically matches vacant jobs with people on the unemployment register.

“Even employers are using Jobs Plus to advertise vacancies and recruit people.

“We are introducing the human element by meeting people face to face – and this is expected to curb abuse. We are trying to make abuse history, and we’re nearly there,” Mr Caruana said.

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