The Social Dialogue Ministry will next week issue new criteria for government tenders in a bid to weed out precarious and unethical employment.
“We will issue criteria for new tenders that go beyond the law to close some loopholes. These criteria will be applied to new tenders that are granted to private contractors employing people in the government sector,” minister Helena Dalli told a General Workers’ Union conference yesterday.
These regulations include issuing employees with a payslip, and the direct deposit of the salary into a bank account to have a clear audit trail. If the contractor does not follow these rules the tender will be stopped.
“During our investigations of precarious work, we came across cases where no law was being broken, however the work conditions were not adequate,” she said.
Closing the conference, GWU general secretary Tony Zarb appealed to workers who have suffered any injustices, including Bank of Valletta employees to come forward with their complaints.
He noted that the section has increased its membership by 60 per cent since 2006. During the past year, 250 new members have enrolled with the GWU every month.
One of the speakers at the conference was BOV chairman John Cassar White, who urged employers to engage with unions when it comes to ongoing training.
“It’s a tragedy when a 45-year-old becomes obsolete because the last training he had was 15 years ago. It is the employers’ obligation to make sure that workers are trained continuously,” Mr Cassar White said.
He said the banking market was competitive, and warned that Malta was not immune to problems faced by overseas banks.
Speaking on the same panel, Parliamentary Secretary Edward Zammit Lewis insisted on the importance of lifelong learning in finance.
“The mentality of holding the same position from the day you start working until you retire is not applicable to this sector any more, and stakeholders need to make sure that people in this sector not only get awarded certificates but also adapt to new responsibilities,” he said.