The problem of precarious work boils down to a few employers who are giving the business a bad name, according to Prime Minister Joseph Muscat.

While he agreed there had to be a proper and clear definition of what precarious work actually meant, Dr Muscat said “a handful of irresponsible employers” were to blame for the situation.

“Precarious employment is ruining the business model of good employers and those who go by the book,” Dr Muscat told the Malta Employers Association, which presented him with its position on the matter.

“It boils down to a handful of irresponsible employers who are giving a bad name to all the others around them.”

For MEA president Arthur Muscat, the issue of precarious employment was “a polemic not a problem”.

He told Dr Muscat that, in the MEA’s view, the issue cropped up because there was no clear definition of what precarious employment involved.

Precarious employment is ruining the business model of good employers

In its position paper, the association said it had facts to prove the situation in Malta was “relatively contained”.

While accusing the unions of blowing it out of proportion, Mr Muscat said: “MEA is against the campaign by the unions in which they are considering part-time work, definite contracts and self-employment as precarious.”

He said the MEA disagreed with drawing up new laws to tackle precarious employment when there were various regulations already in place.

The main problem was enforcement.

The MEA’s paper highlights the distinction between illegal and unethical practices.

Illegal employment means a law was broken when, for example, an employee was paid below the minimum wage or was not allowed to join a union. Unethical employment means no laws are broken but the situation is borderline.

In the paper, the MEA makes various recommendations to the Government, including the setting of minimum hourly rates when issuing tenders.

Land reclamation call

A call for expressions of interest in land reclamation will be issued next week.

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said the Government had in its first few weeks in office shown it was willing to work with the private sector.

The Government was committed to work through public-private partnerships “and not only in terms of roundabouts and homes for the elderly”.

He was satisfied with the “enormous” interest in the Government’s calls for expressions of interest for the redevelopment of the former shipbuilding site.

He said that in just a few weeks, there had been an “unprecedented” number of calls and the Government was open to ideas.

“We are doing things the other way round. Instead of creating a straitjacket and expecting the private sector to fit their ideas into that, we are going to the private sector and asking them for their ideas and proposals.

“This is the way we want to operate. We have shown we are committed to working with the private sector,” he said.