A new “job brokerage” scheme would tackle the irregular employment of refugees and asylum seekers, Education Minister Evarist Bartolo said yesterday.

Launching a White Paper on the proposed system, Mr Bartolo said the government hoped to do away with wage discrepancies between Maltese and migrant workers once and for all.

The brokerage system would see the setting up of two offices, one near the Marsa open centre and another close to that in Ħal Far, which would pair migrants with potential employers. This, he hoped, would be the end of migrants lining streets outside open centres to get picked up for an odd day’s work on a construction site or farm.

This will ensure that, no matter what one’s nationality, the lowest pay people can expect to receive is the minimum wage

Mr Bartolo said there were many migrants whose skills were not being fully utilised. This, he added, did not mean that migrants claiming to have been medical doctors in their home country but not holding any qualifications would be allowed to practise medicine.

However, the government hoped to utilise their talents more than by simply having them perform menial tasks.

The scheme, he said, would safeguard the dignity of workers regardless of their race, ethnicity and religion.

“This will ensure that, no matter what one’s nationality, the lowest pay people can expect to receive is the minimum wage,” Mr Bartolo said.

Asked whether the system could mean taking jobs away from Maltese workers, Mr Bartolo argued that the opposite was true. Those Maltese employees missing out on jobs due to the cheaper wages accepted by foreign workers would now no longer be undercut.

Remuneration would be facilitated through an innovative voucher system. These would be purchased by employers and given to migrants as payment, and they would then be able to exchange them at the ETC office.

The public consultation period on the new system closes on May 25 and the document can be downloaded from the Education Ministry website.