Employers objected to a voucher system to pay short-term migrant workers under a new migrant job brokerage scheme, JobsPlus head Clyde Caruana said today.  

The scheme will see the setting up of two offices, one near the Marsa open centre and another in Ħal Far, which would pair migrants with potential employers. 

Migrants seeking short-term employment will be able to register at these offices.

The original proposal by JobsPlus sought the introduction of standard denomination vouchers to guarantee minimum payments to migrants for their work.

Migrants would have been able to cash out these vouchers at the offices.

Mr Caruana said employers objected as this would not distinguish between the payments merited for different types of work.

Having different vouchers with varying denominations would make the system inflexible, he said.

Mr Caruana said the system would be tweaked when the response is evaluated from employers once the scheme is up and running.

He said the aim was to start with a simple system that would see fewer migrants take to the Marsa streets in search of jobs.

Education Minister Evarist Bartolo said the scheme would help cut down on abuse by employers.

Mr Bartolo said the scheme would help bring these migrants out of the black economy while also guaranteeing more oversight of their working conditions.