In her article, Frances Camilleri-Cassar (The Sunday Times, August 8) states that “people on humanitarian protection need their employer to apply for work permits, which leads to a very clear temptation to cut corners, not apply for such permits, and employ migrants and ethnic minorities at low rate of pay if at all”.

The Employment and Training Corporation (ETC) would like to point out that people who have been granted ‘humanitarian protection’ do not need an employer to apply for a work permit (employment licence) on their behalf. To facilitate their access to the labour market, people under humanitarian protection have a right to apply for an employment licence in their own name, whether they have a job or not.

In order to ensure that there is proper surveillance in place, the ETC has contracted compliance officers to undertake spot checks on employers engaging foreign workers. Checks are carried out to ensure that the foreign workers are doing the job as listed in the position description when their employment licence application was granted.

Regarding third country nationals the corporation checks that the foreign national is being paid at least the minimum wage. Payment of such wages is checked again at renewal stage as the employer would need to provide evidence of the wages paid.

All the information pertaining to the procedures governing applications and renewals of employment licences can be found on the ETC’s website www.etc.gov.mt (‘Employment Licences’ page).