The Centre for Labour Studies (CLS) at the University of Malta, in collaboration with the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung Foundation, recently organised an interesting seminar about the challenges of improving economic competitiveness while safeguarding social cohesion and solidarity.
The seminar was among others attended by trade union and employers’ top officials and was addressed by Professor Godfrey Baldacchino, director of the CLS and leading expert in the field, and by Saviour Rizzo, acting director of the CLS.
The numerous and continuous constraints on the labour market brought about by a more open economy and an increasingly liberalised market is of great concern to both employers and trade unions. The situation demands a more flexible labour market, one of the most direct consequences of which is the increasing atypical forms of employment, in particular part-time work. Although the increase in part-time employment may be conditioned by various factors, the 20-hour threshold as stipulated in the related legal notice may encourage certain entrepreneurs to employ people for just under such weekly hours. It has been remarked upon that some organisations are sharing their employees’ working time in different companies under the threshold, albeit doing the same job, and thus avoiding granting employees leave, sick leave benefits, overtime rate payments and bonuses.
The custom of holding a job for life is changing among employees engaged in certain sectors such as in IT-related activities, preferring short-term contracts of employment instead. On the other hand, employees in most other activities claim for indefinite period contracts especially if these are conditioned by commitments such as payment of house loans. Trade unions are concerned that there is an increase in employees engaged on short-term successive contracts for periods of six months each. This practically means that they will be on a permanent probationary period for at least up to four years, after which the contract will most probably become indefinite.
The important issue of education was inevitably brought into the discussion. The need to combat the high levels of illiteracy among school-leavers is urgent. These people cannot even be classified under the lowest level of the national standard qualification system after having consumed so many years of schooling. The government should still find an alternative to trade schools, maybe by expanding MCAST. Where the higher level is concerned, there was a call for more flexibility in university degree courses. There is wide recognition that the SmartCity project will directly affect the quality and trends of the labour market among others. This brings about the need to train more people in ICT skills. In this regard, the MCAST initiative to farm out IT-related courses was greatly appreciated by employers. However, one needs to define which activities fall under this sector. For instance, are call centres just candidates? The expansion of this sector requires updating industrial legislation in view of the lack of a Wage Regulation Order covering this sector. The latter situation entails that employees in this sector have to negotiate with the respective employers to gain sick and special leave rights and special overtime payment rights.
Malta falls well behind other EU member states in the female participation rate in the labour market. Improving family-friendly measures at work should be a positive step towards nearing the targets set by the Lisbon Agenda. According to a recent survey conducted by the ETC, about 50,000 women are ready to enter the labour market if there were better family-friendly measures. Although employers acknowledge the benefits of the work-life balance idea, they are discouraged by the eventual substantial financial burden on their operations, in particular on SMEs. It has been suggested that government should help employers by shouldering some of the expenses incurred.
Occupational Health and Safety is undoubtedly another field that requires constant and improved attention. Considering the lack of health and safety inspectors, employers would prefer the emphasis of inspections to be directed more at basic issues rather than others of lesser importance that are costly for enterprises.
Recent proposals made by the GWU related to reforming the set-up of the Malta Council for Social and Economic Development (MCSED) were debated, mostly the idea of involving NGOs and the choice of the chairman. There was a call for a more structured agenda, for the need to involve sub-committees and for less media speculation that may lead to unnecessary public misconceptions about the MCSED. The participants gave their views about the problems related to the Registrar of Trade Unions and Employers’ Associations. The issue of what legally constitutes trade union membership is seemingly vague. Employers consider the occasional recognition disputes between unions are a disruption to their operations. Suggestions towards relieving this issue included the need to tackle the dual membership issue and to transform the Registrar of Trade Unions in an autonomous office.
The “round table” seminar based on a structured agenda was another interesting and useful initiative taken by the Centre for Labour Studies and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung Foundation. The participants, in particular the social partners, acknowledged its importance to the extent that they stressed the need for more academics in other institutions to follow suit by collaborating with the industry and sharing their knowledge for the benefit of society. The CLS intends to submit the proposals discussed in the seminar to the political parties contesting the forthcoming general election.
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