Yesterday was the anniversary of the founding of the General Workers’ Union. The Union Haddiema Maghqudin has in the last months rebranded itself as UĦM Voice of the Workers. Last weekend, the candidate for the premiership of Beppe Grillo’s Party in Italy (Movimento 5 Stelle) called for a reform of the trade union movement in the country.
Although seemingly unrelated, this series of events provided me with the trigger to think that it is time to make an assessment of the relationship between employers and employees and their representatives.
It is difficult to make such an assessment in a few hundred words. However, I strongly believe that in Malta we have come to the stage where such an assessment is required.
Over the years, trade unions have fought for their right to exist in the first place, then fought for their rights to operate freely in the workplace in representation of the employees, and then fought to strengthen the rights of the workers and to obtain better working conditions.
In those economies where the social market economy has thrived, many of the achievements of trade unions have become entrenched into law.
The legislation regulating conditions of work across the European Union is proof of this. In fact, European businesses often feel disadvantaged against competition from businesses operating outside the EU because the latter do not have to abide by some of the stringent conditions which EU businesses have to.
Moreover, the fact that today there is a more educated workforce and the growth of services activities in the economies across the EU, such as the financial services and ICT sectors, may at times make trade unions seem obsolete, past their time. Let me state clearly that I disagree with such a point of view.
They need to come to terms with how society has become more individualistic and liberal
The same thinking could be applied to Malta. With very low unemployment, with an economy growing at an average of around five per cent in real terms in each of the last three years, with workers’ rights being quite strongly protected by law, with average salaries increasing significantly, especially in areas where trade union activity is minimal, we need to understand better what the role of the trade unions should be. There is no doubt that trade unions in Malta, as in other EU member states, are an important part of the fabric of our economy and society in general. They are very important partners in the development of social and civil dialogue in Malta, which then has an impact on the development of our economy.
Although they still have a very important job to safeguard and enhance employee rights (that is their traditional role), should they stick to just this role or should they have an enhanced role in today’s economy? It needs to be appreciated that the freedom of trade unions in a country is still recognised worldwide as an important indicator of the quality of democracy in that country.
The impact of technology in the place of work and on our daily lives, the creation by employers of new methods of the way work is organised, the creation of less hierarchical organisation structures, the increased empowerment of employees, the development of new economic activities, the changed attitude towards work on the part of employees (it has essentially become a means to a lifestyle and not a means of survival or a career) have all led to the need of trade unions to take a different approach.
Trade unions have always sought to project their strength through unity. However, they need to come to terms with how society has become more individualistic and liberal.
They also need to assert the fact that the way labour is viewed traditionally in an economy, that it is a factor of production at par with land, capital and entrepreneurship, is no longer valid, and that there is a definite hierarchy whereby labour is viewed as being superior to capital and land.
One often hears the statement that trade unions block change. Whether they actually do this or not is not an issue. The question that should be asked is whether trade unions can become agents of economic change. If they do not become agents of change, the chances are that economic change will happen anyway and they may not like what they see happening around them.
In this context, trade unions may need to adopt an approach that is more collaborative with businesses, the rest of civil society and the government. While maintaining their traditional role of safeguarding and enhancing workers’ rights and of always asking for that ‘little bit more’, they may need to take a more proactive approach to the creation of wealth, by embracing and initiating change and not simply trying to cope with it.