The Employment and Training Corporation recently announced that in the first 10 months of this year, inspections unearthed some 1,797 cases of work abuse.
For years and years, going back to the days of John Dalli as Finance Minister, PN governments have successively hammered across the message that the state was going to get tough on those who abuse benefits and do not declare their earnings.
Well, one would have to say that it has taken a long time in coming, but the results are finally starting to show.
It used to be an open secret, all one had to do to gauge just how rampant abuse was, was simply to go and watch people dusting themselves down before registering as unemployed at the ETC offices.
The ETC’s Law Enforcement Section carried out a total of 3,077 inspections and out of those, 1,797 cases of abuse were discovered. Out of these, 22 cases have been appealed with only three being won by the appellant.
The ETC said that the abuse included 148 people working illegally while registering as unemployed. There were 14 cases of employment of minors and a whopping 1,049 working without declaring income. A total of 272 people were found in undeclared part-time work with 307 foreigners working illegally.
The ETC interviewed a grand total of 5,940 people as a result of investigations by inspectors, and perhaps more importantly, tip-offs given by the general public.
The ETC has in fact appealed for the general public’s help to root out those who abuse the system. The United Kingdom recently employed a similar strategy and it gave results very quickly.
This, of course, makes sense. The vast majority of people who are out of work do not want to be in that situation and they only register for work in the hope of a job turning up.
Meanwhile, if there are people who are working illegally or not declaring their income, it is one less job for them and so, it makes perfect sense to report abusers.
It is, more or less, the whistleblower concept. What was also important in the news release was the fact that the ETC has also come down hard on those who employ minors or foreigners who do not have the necessary permits in hand.
Malta still has the mentality that getting a job at a young age is ‘good for you’. Granted, if someone leaves school and does not want to further their studies, they should enter the workforce. But do we really want 15- and 16-year-olds waiting tables, serving behind bars or toiling on a broiling beach in the summer, working for a pittance? The answer would most definitely have to be a no. But while those who employed them have been taken to court, one has to ask whether their parents have been approached on the matter. They are, after all, minors.
One would have to say that there is still more to do and that there will always be characters who will try to swindle the system. But the fact that so many inspections were carried out and concluded successfully is a definite plus. Now the ETC inspectorate needs to keep up the rhythm and must also gain more of the public’s trust in weeding out welfare cheats. At the end of the day, while those who work illegally are depriving others of jobs, it is still every Tom, Dick and Harry amongst us that needs to foot the bill for their swindling.