Companies which breach employment laws or public procurement regulations may be blacklisted for up to two years on the strength of a legal notice which has been issued today.

The legal notice provides for the establishment of a commercial sanctions tribunal which could blacklist contractors for a period ranging from six months to two years.

At a press conference, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said that this measure was the greatest disincentive that could be offered to employers who persist in finding ways to get around regulations meant to ensure that workers have decent working conditions.

He noted that over the past few years, a number of measures have been introduced to address loopholes, but also said that employers who engage in precarious employment practices have proven to be quite ingenious in finding new loopholes to exploit.

The introduction of blacklisting, Dr Muscat said, may not put an end to such practices, but sent a strong signal to employers who sought to persist in them.

"Ending up blacklisted is no joke," he added.

Principal permanent secretary Mario Cutajar explained that government has presently entered into over 100 contracts outsourcing cleaning services, clerical services, care work or security work to private contractors, and stressed that a number of measures to address precarious employment practices have been taken in recent years.

As from this year, any such contracts have to ensure that employees receive at least the same wages paid to government employees in the same position, to put an end to longstanding anomaly. This measure, Mr Cutajar explained, is estimated to cost the government an additional €5 million this year.

Dr Muscat also said that the government was now planning to introduce qualitative criteria in public procurement instead of adjudicating contracts solely on the basis of price, pointing out that the establishment of minimum standards has largely equalised bidders' prices. He said that the government would want to assess bids according to the level of service provided, pointing out that this often reflected the wages contractors offered to their employees.

"We managed to reverse a race to the bottom where everyone tries to shave off cents off their price to win contracts," he maintained.

Finance Minister Edward Scicluna - whose ministry is responsible for public procurement - said that the establishment of the tribunal pre-empts an expected EU directive on the matter. The tribunal, which will be made up of three people whose appointment is set to be announced in the coming days, is set to gain more powers when this directive comes into force, but Prof. Scicluna noted that the government did not want to wait when it came to blacklisting employers who resort to precarious employment practices.

Photos Jonathan Borg