Malta fared poorly when it came to equal employment opportunities for men and women and the number of toddlers in formal childcare, a conference on the European Pillars of Social Rights heard on Wednesday.
“While Malta is performing relatively well on the social scoreboard, the island is facing challenges when it comes to early school leavers - where the numbers are quite high - the gender employment gap, and the share of children aged less than three in formal childcare.
“These issues perpetuate the negative spirals of poverty and social exclusion,” Stefan Olsson, the Director General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion for the EU Commission said.
Speaking at an event organised by The Malta Business Weekly and the European Commission, Mr Olsson acknowledged Malta’s efforts at addressing the high flow of young adults leaving school with low skills, while the island had also introduced universal access to childcare. However, these measures took time to bear fruit.
When it comes to the gender gap within employment, he noted that this was not just an equality issue: more women were needed within the labour market to sustain businesses and productivity. The high employment and skills rate of women was an important element within the Swedish productivity model, he noted.
Mr Olsson said that over the past 10 years, working life has radically transformed across the EU. Employment within the service sector has increased from 67 to 72 per cent, while the share of those aged between 55 and 64 who are active within the labour market has doubled from 16 to 32 million. And while one out of every 14 Europeans used to telework in 2008, this has increased to one out of every six people.
Australia has increased extracurricular activities so that school finishes at the same time that office hours come to an end
Addressing the same meeting, head of the university’s Gender Studies Department JosAnn Cutajar referred to best practices abroad, noting that some countries had reduced their working hours so that both men and women could keep up a family-work life balance.
“Do we want to continue pushing more people into the labour market without adjusting the infrastructure?
“One of the current challenges for parents in Malta is that school and work hours kick off at the same time. However, working hours overlap school hours. Among others, Australia has increased extracurricular activities so that school finishes at the same time that office hours come to an end. If we managed to provide free transport for all, I’m sure we can do something about this.”
Mr Olsson meanwhile noted that in Sweden, fathers were incentivised to apply for parental leave because parents would otherwise lose benefits - mothers did not inherit any time off that the fathers failed to take.
Reacting, GRTU president Paul Abela urged for a balance between the needs of the employers and employees, especially considering emerging markets such as China and the challenge of finding enough skilled workers.
Joe Farrugia, from the Malta Employers' Association, added that the number of working women, flexibility and teleworking opportunities were all on the increase.
He urged against stretching resources from all ends, noting, for example, that rather than increasing leave entitlement for everyone, this should have been directed towards those who most needed it.
Speaking also from the floor, sociologist and PN MEP candidate Michael Briguglio said that while he was aware of recent positive reforms, several challenges persisted.
Among others, childcare should be regarded as a social right for children, and not a favour to parents, or mothers, as if they were second class citizens.
It was also about time that Malta stopped politicising the pension issue and had a constructive, national debate, he said.