The opposition has called on the government to seek to increase the June and December bonuses to reflect the cost of living index.
Speaking during the debate in the second reading of the Employment and Industrial Relations Act (Amendment) Bill, Labour spokesman on employment Anġlu Farrugia said statutory bonuses were an important part of the working package and the Bill should develop them further.
Dr Farrugia spoke after Justice Minister Chris Said announced changes to the Act would preclude the change of an indefinite contract of employment to a fixed-term contract, unless the nature of the work changes substantially.
Dr Said said the Act, which had come into force at a time when Malta was strengthening its legislative framework in preparation for EU membership way back in 2002, was being overhauled.
The government, he said, remained committed to reaching its targets of social and economic development, which were crucial to an improved quality of life. It was committed to increase female participation, maximising resources and facilitating measures to strike a balance between one’s work and private life.
Dr Said pointed out that despite unexpected challenges Malta had managed to save about 5,000 jobs and some 2,700 jobs were created by capital projects such as City Gate and Smart City.
More than 150,000 people were in full-time employment, with a further 20,000working part-time.
As more women returned to work, women in employment had increased by 8,294.
Malta has the sixth lowest unemployment rate in the EU, and the fourth lowest youth unemployment rate.
However, the government wanted to strive for better results. EU membership had seen the introduction of a number of new concepts, such as better parental leave. No fewer than 35 legal notices to ensure a better quality of life had been published.
The Industrial Relations Department had carried out some 5,468 inspections between 2008 and 2011.
Of 1,237 claims of unfair dismissal, 663 were settled out of court for €66,000. In 771 of these cases the police were asked to start court proceedings.
A number of important legal notices on new issues such as regulating temporary workers had been introduced over the past years. These amendments had been agreed upon with the social partners, he said.
Dr Farrugia said exploitation and discrimination still existed.
The Bill dealt with issues of sexual harassment and incidence of discrimination,which he called a step in the right direction.
Nevertheless, he called for pending cases to be speeded up as the delay was causing hardship.
The government needed to set an example and eliminate any type of abuse with regard to the self-employed.
Dr Farrugia suggested the self-employed be identified to see whether they were working with all the legal conditions and benefits, or whether they were asked to list themselves as self-employed by their employers for other reasons.
The Bill would amend the contracts of service. This was also a step forward since the legislation did not offer a definition.
Through the amendments, a contract of service would still be binding whether entered in writing or verbally.
Referring to the recent NSO Labour Force Survey, Dr Farrugia said there were currently 86 per cent of individuals in full-time work, with another 25 per cent who only held a part-time job.
Unemployment had increased only by one per cent in the eurozone between 2011 and this year, mainly as a result of the difficult economic scenario.
This was definitely not an ideal situation and it was not fair towards anyone to claim that part-time workers chose to have a part-time job rather than being in full-time employment. This may not be totally true since other factors contributed to having such a high number of people not employed on a full-time basis.
Malta still had the least number of female workers in all the EU member states, with almost 8,000 unemployed individuals.
He said there was the need to take note of unemployed young people under the age of 25, since more than half were on the dole for more than 12 months.