While the number of registered unemployed stood at 6,501 in November last year, Leisure Clothing is still seeking foreign help and is set to take on an additional 12 North Koreans.
Currently, two Chinese directors of Leisure Clothing are facing charges of human trafficking for exploitation purposes and breaching labour laws.
A Leisure Clothing spokesperson confirmed to this newsroom that the 12 North Korean workers are currently awaiting clearance from the Employment Training Corporation (which is tasked to assess whether permits should be issued on labour market grounds) and the Maltese embassy in Beijing.
As soon as they are given the all clear they will take up employment at the Bulebel factory.
“The clearance is imminent,” the spokesperson said, while confirming that the workers will be given a three-year contract.
Presently, the majority of the workers at the factory are Chinese but the factory also employs Maltese workers along with a small number of Vietnamese and one North Korean worker.
The LEAP programme
The move to approve further ‘cheap labour’ workers from Asia seems to be in direct conflict with a government scheme called the LEAP project which aims to create occupational opportunities for disadvantaged Maltese that are at risk of poverty. The fact that the local authorities are still issuing work permits for foreign nationals begs the question as to whether Maltese workers haven’t the skills to take up such jobs or if employers are not working hard enough to attract local workers to address labour shortage concerns.
Worthy of note is that it is close to impossible for North Korean citizens to freely travel around the country, let alone travel abroad. It has been stated in Parliament that the Maltese embassy in Beijing has given Maltese (Schengen zone) visas to 55 North Koreans since March last year.
In an interview with this newsroom, the management of Leisure Clothing had said that it would not be employing more Vietnamese workers since they are not as skilled as Chinese workers.
It argued that the Vietnamese were not earning as much as the Chinese due to their poor skills which reflected their salaries, the majority of which is based on performance bonuses. Maltese Leisure Clothing workers, on the other hand, have fixed bonuses.
Leisure Clothing says it withheld passports of workers out of fear they would flee to other border-free Schengen zones
Asked why the company held onto the passports of their Asian employees, Leisure Clothing said that it used to withhold passports of its foreign workers since it feared that such workers could take advantage of other border-free Schengen zones and escape from Malta and “if this were to happen, the company would be held accountable”. Asked if it still withholds passports of workers, the company emphasised that it has stopped doing so.
When asked if it stopped withholding passports of workers after the case came to light, Leisure Clothing insisted that it had long been refraining from doing so.
“The company feels that workers who would like to stay on can do so and others who do not wish to can freely leave the company.”
However, this newsroom pointed out to Leisure Clothing that in the past, the company did keep hold of its workers’ passports. The company said that it did so only until residents’ permits of the workers are cleared. Questioned if it employed persons without a work permit until it is issued, the spokesperson denied it is the case.
“It is illegal to employ persons without the employee having the relevant permit in hand beforehand,” the spokesperson said.
In court, a number of Vietnamese Leisure Clothing workers and one Chinese worker claimed that on their arrival to Malta, representatives of Leisure Clothing asked them for their passports. Some of the Vietnamese workers at Leisure had reportedly tried to escape from Malta using false documents since their passports had been sequestered by the company at the time. According to the prosecuting police inspector’s court testimony they did not ask for their passports back because they did not want to show their employer that they were leaving. They were scared and were being exploited, the inspector continued.
Since the Employment and Training Corporation is the entity that processes applications for the issue of employment licences (previously known as work permits) with regards to foreign nationals to be employed in Malta it states on its website that if you are not a citizen of an EU country, you need an employment licence in order to be able to work in Malta. EU nationals (except citizens of Croatia), EEA and Swiss nationals do not require an employment licence to work in Malta.
Employment licences must be applied for by the employer and not by the jobseeker. Such work permits are issued to employers wishing to engage foreigners for a determined period and for a specific purpose, only after it has been ascertained that every effort has been made to engage a suitable Maltese citizen.
Leisure Clothing says foreign workers employed according to quota established under PN government
In reaction to our story published today, Leisure Clothing shop steward Josephine Scerri said that the 12 Koreans would be replacing the Vietnamese former workers and their potential employment is in accordance with an agreement signed by a PN-led administration in 2010, specifically by Brian Magro, who was the head of secretariat of that time of the ministry responsible, with a quota of workers, both foreign and local, agreed upon by the company and the same government.
“The Employment and Training Corporation will only grant and issues work permits according to the quota and it has been customary that the same ETC checks the quota on a regular basis.
“For your information, a fine-tuning of the agreement based on the same principles that was signed by Mr Magro was recently reviewed by the present government last year,” the company said.
The company added it will also be issuing a call for applications to recruit local workers on the shop floor as well as in the administration department next month.
The company also highlighted that several calls for applications have been issued in the past but hardly any Maltese nationals applied for the jobs.
The quota Leisure Clothing refers to is reportedly four foreign nationals to one Maltese worker but the fine-tuned agreement has increased the ratio to five foreign nationals against one Maltese worker.